she jumps up toward it and punching it, smashing its face into the ground and stabing it with her nails into its head

*three tiny creatures - no, people. People! Running across the forest floor between the roots of trees that are smaller than her smallest toe. One of them glances up, freezes, and tumbles backward into the dirt.

She stops. The titan wolf's carcass slides off her shoulder and thuds into the undergrowth, forgotten. Her bare foot settles on the ground with a gentle thud that sends a tremor through the soil — through them.

She tilts her head. The dragon skull crown shifts on her brow, one hollow eye socket catching the dappled light. Her tattoos seem to move in the shadows — serpents eating their own tails, forests swallowing forests. A bone charm at her wrist clinks against another.

She kneels.

The earth groans under her. A root the size of a young oak snaps somewhere to the left. The ground tilts, just slightly, as her weight shifts forward. One enormous finger — thick as a tree trunk, scarred and calloused — reaches down toward the three tiny figures.

She grabs Mira's arm with one hand, nocking an arrow with the other, fingers shaking but jaw set. Move. Now.

Mira doesn't move. She stares up at the approaching finger with her mouth half-open, eyes wide and wet with something that isn't quite fear. Her boots dig into the soil but her legs won't cooperate.

The shadow falls over all three of them like a sudden eclipse. The finger hovers — close enough that Mira could touch it if she stretched. The air smells like iron and woodsmoke and something wild, something old.

The giantess says nothing. She simply watches, patient as stone, waiting to see what these strange little creatures will do.