Apartment above the Blind Baker’s, Northgate
Same day as Bax & Ethan reunion, before Vanja & Ethan meet
Vanja hasn’t had adventures, like the ones Bax has described, but she’s happy to share her own stories, or ones she’s heard. Sitting there on the floor of the empty room, above the Blind Baker’s apartment, Vanja is leaning over her knees as she starts her story. She has to start it a few times, couching the story in its proper context.
“This is a Jorungun story. But not a traditional one. It’s a story from Jorung, anyway. One my dad told me, that he said happened to him, when he was there. Well, it’s something that someone he travelled with told him once. That man told him and then my dad told me.”
“So when my dad and mom were in Jorung, they used to be with this group. A big nomadic band, their tribe. A whole mixed group, some humans, some dwarves, traveling together. And there was this one man, my dad said—”
She breaks, starts laughing. Pulls herself together.
“My dad said that this man said he was a king in Jorung. But that can’t be true, because there are no kings in Jorung. It’s not like here in Isendel, there isn’t that kind of organization, you know? It’s mostly tribes like my folks’. Just everyone the same level.” She pauses, realizing that the subtleties of Jorungun social structure are likely uninteresting to her new companions.
“Anyway, this man says that he was a king. And also a rune knight. He’d mastered rune magic, and he could use the runes in battle to grow bigger, and fight, and be stronger. But he didn’t shrink back down afterwards. He’d get bigger each time. And this man, my dad said, he was maybe 12 feet tall? Or even bigger? I don’t know. But he’s big, but not so big?”
She starts to laugh in earnest now, at the image of her father next to this enormous man, claiming to be a king, and at the memory of the original telling - her father sharing the story with her and her brothers, the tall man seemingly larger with ever retelling, her father always insisting he was a human-seeming man.
Vanja continues, “So this man, the king, he uses the rune magic, and he gets bigger every time. And eventually he gets so big that these Giant women—”
She laughs, tears starting to stream down her face. It’s not so funny, but she’s laughing at the memory of her dad telling it, and laughing at herself laughing now, and at the bemused expression on Bax’s face.
“He gets so big,” she gasps, “These Giant women. Giantesses. They start to pursue him, as a mate. Because he’s still a king, but now he’s a giant king? But not actually a Giant? Just like,” she mimes, her hands stretching upward, “Just like, a big man? A regular man? But these Giant women are after him. And so—”
The next words are barely audible. Vanja is trying to talk through her laughter.
“So he has to run. He has to leave the throne. Has to run away and not be the king anymore, and he just—”
Another gasping laugh.
“He just like…joins my dad’s tribe? But my dad knows this man. He knows this just…is so unlikely to be true! But this man says,” she takes a deep breath, steadies herself. She looks over at her new friend, and finishes strong. “This man…claims to have been a giant King of Jorung.”
She looks up at Bax and she can tell he doesn’t understand why it’s funny.
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