In the City of Giants - Chapter IV

            Smallblade awoke in darkness, only illuminated by the dimmest orange light from above, it was cramped, and he could feel warm bodies around him. His eyes adjusted to the lack of light and he was able to understand his surroundings. The bodies around him were his knocked-out siblings, piled haphazardly on top of each other, he could not quite tell who was who aside from Tilian, but he thought it might be Shabaka’s leg on top of his own. It was not so much a room they were in, as much as it was a large sand pit at least eight feet deep with a flat roof covering the top.

            “Guys, guys!” shouted Smallblade. The silhouettes laid around him made startled motions before quickly rising to their feet. Smallblade still was not quite able to tell everyone apart.

            “Where are we?” asked Vito.

            “No idea,” said Smallblade. “But I would be willing to bet it has something to do with those guys that knocked us out,” suddenly Smallblade had an idea, he was not sure it was a good one, but it was an idea. “Tilian, would you happened to have suddenly developed your fire breath while we were knocked out?” Even through the darkness Smallblade could see the bad looks he was getting.

            “Wait Amare!” exclaimed Tilian. “Why don’t you summon some pillars to knock that board or whatever it is off the top of this thing?”

            “That might just work,” responded Amare. Smallblade was now able to identify the left most figure as his eldest sibling from the hand and arm motions xey were doing. Hands against hips with palms facing the ground, and then quickly raising them up into the air. Two thin pillars of tightly packed sand shot up towards the roof and… did nothing but shatter back into grains.

            “So, was that because the board is tough, or because your magic is shitty?” groaned Vito.

            “Let’s just move on,” sighed Amare. “We got to figure out how to get out of here. We don’t know if or when Father is going to save u-”

            Almost as if on cue, that was when the roof came crashing down, and light came flooding in, almost putting a spotlight on Bard who stood in the middle of the wrecked wood.

            “Or he could just save us out of nowhere,” said Amare, wide eyed.

            “Hey kids, let’s go,” said Bard so quickly Smallblade could barely understand what he was saying.

            “Whoa slow down!” cried Shabaka. “What’s going on?”

            “This place, it was never a city, it’s an ancient giant armory. Just when I had finished figuring out the runes, Buskdor came and told me what had happened, so I came to save you.”

            “What about Autca?” Smallbade asked, wanting to attack the source directly.

            “He is after whatever the giants kept here. If I was reading the runes correctly, it said something about experimental armor. I knew the giants were technologically advanced, but this is a whole new level,” Bard said, stone-faced. “Now Smallblade, I cleared the path for you, would you kindly throw us out of this pit?” Smallblade could not contain his glee when his father gave him permission to throw people around.

            Within the span of four seconds, Smallbalde had grabbed the legs all five present members of his family and thrown them out the top of the pit.

            “We are going to go find a rope!” called Shabaka peering down that pit at Smallblade gave her a smile and a thumbs up. He was just glad they were alright; he had a habit of sometimes throwing people too hard.

            Before long, a rope had been thrown down to Smallblade and he was able to climb up to the surface and join everyone. But the very second Smallblade had reached the top…

            BOOM! A massive sound roared through the entire dig site, followed by a brief but violent earthquake. Screams of Eianth could be heard as they scattered away from the main dig crater. Smallblade and everyone could not help but look in the direction of the sound.

            “I ran out of time!” cried out Bard.

            There, right by the massive crater that was the dig, was a geyser of sand, and from it came a gigantic figure. It was obscured by the cloud of sand at first, but as the dust settled, what it was became more and more clear.

            The figure was at least thirty feet tall, it moved stiffly and unnaturally, it was pure metal like a knight in armor, and its face looked like that of an angry demon. It was something only before described in outlandish sci-fi books. It was a massive automaton, a giant robot.