Episode 131: The Mountain Giant & the Temple

The heroes, with the help of an old friend, have to figure out how to pacify an angry giant heading towards the elf grotto in the Forest of Forevermore. Only to learn that there's more to giants than they think. 

Transcript

The Mountain Giant and the Temple

Once upon a time in the land of Atheria, there was a princess Nea and a princess Lulu and they went on the most amazing adventures. They had just restored the Cloud Temple with the Tornadian Crystals and were taking a break back at Sparland Castle. 

They were just about to begin their next journey with Coryn, the elf from Forevermore, when there came a friendly visitor to their door. 

[Knock, knock, knock]

It was Darius, riding on top of his bear, Rose. He had just come from the Forest of Forevermore to tell the princesses that there was a big angry giant heading through the Forest of Forevermore trying attack the elves and destroy the city - or so they thought. As you might remember, giants don’t speak the same language as the rest of Atherians and are often misunderstood because of it. Luckily for the elves, the giant didn’t know how to get through the magic forest to the elf city so he was just walking around in circles getting angrier and angrier by the minute pushing over trees and kicking them around the forest. 

“We have to do something,” Coryn protested. 

“Princess Lulu, can you come and play your magic flute?” Darius asked. 

Princess Lulu had a magic flute that was given to her by some dwarfs awhile ago. When she played a special calming song on this flute it could actually put giants to sleep. They’d also learned that at other times it could calm and heal others who had been consumed by anger with magic.

The princesses agreed and headed out to the Forest of Forevermore but as they journeyed, Princess Nea asked a very important question.

“So what are we going to do once we put the giant to sleep? We can’t put him to sleep forever and he’ll probably just wake up even more upset.”

“What if we got all the elves to leave the village so if he ever got to the grotto they would all be safe?”

“We couldn’t possibly do that, there are too many elves. And they’d never give up the grotto or the forest like that.” Coryn said, thinking of all the times the elves had been invaded. Other Atherians were always trying to take over elf land - or so they thought - because of how much magic elves had. 

“Let’s figure it out once we put him to sleep. Maybe we can give him a better heart.” Darius said, holding on to his white crystal, which had the power to give people softer hearts and minds. 

When they got to the forest, the giant was clearly a mountain giant and was familiar with land. You could hear him thrashing from miles away so the adventurers had no problem finding him, even with the confusing pathways in the forest. 

“What if we tried using your crystal first?” asked Nea.

“See if I can heal him? Make him calmer?” asked Darius.

“Yeah.”

Darius agreed and held out his crystal. It immediately started glowing brighter and brighter, catching the giants attention. Darius closed his eyes and tried to let go of the danger and fear he felt in front of a large mountain giant. 

The giant saw him and started coming over. 

[Thump, thump, thump]

The giant started to walk faster and faster towards the group. 

“It’s not working!” Darius yelled. “His heart isn’t changing!”

What they didn’t know was that Coryn had also pulled out his gray crystal and was trying to use it was well, without any success.

“This isn’t working either!” Coryn admitted.

“Lulu! The flute!” Nea shouted.

As the giant continued to get closer.

[Thump, thump, thump]

Lulu pulled out her flute and as quickly as she could, played the magic tune the dwarfs taught her. 

[Calming tune]

[Thump, thump, crash]
 
And the giant fell to the ground, landing on a huge pile of bushes. 

“What were you thinking, Coryn?” asked Nea. 

“Well, I thought maybe I could blow him back with some wind, or hold him up in a tornado or something. You know, use these things to protect us.”

“I guess that’s not that bad of an idea.” 

“But it didn’t work. I did the same thing I did in the Cloud Ruins but it didn’t work. It didn’t feel like that was the right thing to do.”

“I felt that too,” agreed Darius, thinking about his own experience with the white crystal. “It didn’t feel like his heart was bad. What do you think that means?” 

And just then they heard the sound of a large fly buzzing by, but it wasn’t a fly it was a pair of fairies who were invisible. Recognizing the sound, Nea pulled out the magic Titan Mask that gave her the ability to see magical things and put it on.

“Flix!” she yelled. 

Immediately Flix and the other fairy stopped flying and faced the group. Realizing that someone had spotted them.

“Princess Nea! What a surprise to see you here!” he said, flying over to her.

And then he noticed the large mountain giant laying in the bushes.

“What on earth have you done!” he said elbowing his fairy friend. This fairy had a trail of green sparkles.

“Get it earth.” He whispered to her.

“Flix, that’s not funny! We need to get Brimrock to the Land Temple.” 

“To the Land Temple?” Lulu asked. “Why would you bring a dangerous giant to the Land temple?”

“Wait, did you say Brimrock?” Nea asked, remembering what the fairy Springle had said at the Land Temple.

Flix and his companion looked at each other.

“Don’t you guys know about the protectors?” said the other fairy.

“Oh no, don’t tell me. You’re kidding right?” Flix said, expecting everyone to start laughing.

But no one said anything. 

When he noticed no one was laughing he continued. 

“You mean you’ve been putting giants to sleep every time you’ve seen one?” He couldn’t believe his ears. He slapped his hand to his face, wondering how they could’ve gotten this far. “Well this might explain why they’re so upset with you!”

Tell me you’ve heard the old saying about the protectors …

“The wrath of big, the wrath of small, the two together for the ruins, for all.” 

He said quoting the old saying. 

“That’s why Rakta had a protective spell on the Cloud Temple. To protect it! And so did Brimrock, with the leaves.”

By now the princesses were starting to feel a little embarrassed. As they pieced together all of their interactions with the giants on their adventure, they never once thought to try to communicate with the giants. They had always just thought they were dangerous and then played the flute to either take something from them or escape.

“Restoring the temples is just the beginning.” Flix explained. “Once they’re restored by the Keepers, they need to be protected, by the Protectors. The giants and the fairies. We’re the wrath of the big (the giants) and the wrath of the small (the fairies). Zig here is Stagmore’s partner. I was up in the Sky Kingdom traveling with Rakta’s partner before I bumped into you guys.”  

“So why is he attacking the elf grotto?” Asked Coryn. 

“The giants have been trying to do their part to protect the crystals. When he heard that one was in elf grotto he came to get it. We were trying to get to him first and head back to the Land Temple now that it’s been partially restored.”

Flix and Zig continued to explain that they could speak the giant’s language. The giants and the fairies, since long ago had been on friendly terms and had used their various skills to help each other. 

When the magic from Lulu’s flute began to wear off, the giant started to stir and rub his head. When he saw the adventurers who had put him to sleep he shouted.

“Ubba wagga googa!”

The group looked a Flix, who spoke back to the giant in the giant’s language.

“Zagga rabna loooba!”

The giant seemed to understand and recognized Zig, who fluttered over to the giant and sat on his shoulder. She immediately started translating for him as he spoke. 

“Why are you so mean to us giants!” she said, or really Zig said for him. 

“We’re sorry!” apologized Lulu. “Brimrock of the mountains, we had no idea of your intentions and we really should have not have acted out of fear first.”

Again she translated. 

“Do you have the crystal?” he asked. 

And the princesses explained that they had retrieved the white crystal, but not the black crystal. Darius also shared that when he got back to the elf grotto with Ellery, he wasn’t able to heal the elf chief. They were going to need both crystals to do it. 

“Then we must return to the Land Temple and wait, Zig.”

And he turned and began to walk away with the green fairy on his shoulders. 

“Wait! Princess Lulu and Coryn need to use their crystals to heal the Land Temple as well. May we travel with you?” Nea asked.

The giant agreed to travel with them back to the Land Temple so they could do their part to continue to heal Atheria. And you know what, on their way back, they learned that all this time that the frost giant, who they took the blue crystal from, was named Nibor and was still very much upset that they had taken the blue crystal from him when he was trying to protect Atheria. And the princesses thought that maybe they should make amends.

The end.