"The idiot that brought you to the Wizard's Tower," says the giant. "All edges and elbows."
Her breath isn't getting any better and I am not getting used to the putrid smell. We need breath mints and air-freshener like ten minutes ago.
"That's an elf?" I ask.
I thought elves were supposed to be tall and sexy and natural looking, not androgynous monstrosities that look like they've spent their life under the knife.
The giant snorts and I am blown over. I try not to think about what the stuff is tat now covers me.
"It abandoned me in the jungle," I say.
I haven't seen its sharp-boned weirdness since I stepped into the panda god's temple.
"They showed more sense than elves usually do, then," says the giant.
I don't have an answer for that.
"Assuming you're telling the truth, o' course," the giant adds.
I stand up and stare her right in the eyes - well, one of them - because it's outrageous that anyone should question whether I tell the truth.
"I don't lie," I say stiffly.
"Never ever?"
"Never."
The giant growls at me and the ground shakes so that I fall to my knees. "Liar."
"I'm not lying," I shout.
"You killed the elf!"
"I did not!"
I really didn't. Unless they ceased existing as soon as I could no longer see them and that should count as killing.
"I will take you nowhere if you can't prove you an't killed the elf," the giant says.
"I don't know where the elf is," I say.
She snorts. "You didn't know where I was, either."
"That's different," I say.
Without meaning to, I'm crawling backwards, away from the angry zombie giant. Me. Backing away from anyone. This is a nightmare.
"You killed me," the giant says.
Sod crawling. I stumble to my feet and run.
"That was very different," I shout over my shoulder.
"Show me the elf and I'll believe you," the giant howls from not far enough away and then...
THUMP
THUMP
… her rotting foot lands in front of me. My head doesn't even reach the ankle - an ankle I can see bone trough, greening flesh hanging off where it usually clings to the bulging joint. I'm picked up by my waist, pincered between a thumb and finger that smell like something left to rot in a fridge so long it ought to be declared a biological weapon. I throw up in my mouth and have to spit it out because there's no way I can swallow it back down.
"Where did you leave the body?" she asks me, her breath in my face.
All I can see is an old, dead woman's mouth. All I can smell is her breath. All I can feel is her grip on me.
"I didn't leave it anywhere," I say. "I haven't killed the elf."
"Liar!"
"I am not!"
"Then show me the elf!"
"I can't!"
The giant falls silent.
"I can't show you where the elf is," I say. "I have no idea where it will be since I left the jungle."
"You mean you didn't mark their grave, either," the giant says as softly as a giant can.
"There is no grave. I swear."
"Even worse," says the giant. She sighs, "I would be rid of you. So. You will do penance for your murderous ways and then I shall show you that stone circle you think you need."
"'Penance'?" I ask.