She dashed under the foot of the mountain god, barely making it within its protection, the wolves stopping short of making the venture and eyeing her.

“We’ll be safe here. No shifter or soother would risk the life of the pack, nor anger the god above.” The wolves snapped their fangs just outside the giants shadow, the sunlight on their fur making their prickled haunches glow white.

Legends spoke of entire civilizations being wiped out beneath a giants step. Lakes and craters emerged where once there were plains, and hills and cities crumbled as if dried bark.

If the giant decided to finish Her step tonight, their crew would be squished like bugs, but the alternative was to face the Pack outside. Besides, night was falling soon enough, and finding unoccupied safe shelter on the open plains would be near impossible. Now that others had heard their battle, everyone would be on high alert for strangers, especially a tall woman from Waterlogge.

The impossible length of the giants mountain stone foot created an impossible bright horizon that seemed forever away in almost every direction beside the direction they’d come. It was pure darkness except for a solid line beyond, the foot bottom about 3 times her own height above. It didn’t look quite like the pure stone she had expected, and there were intricate lines. Her step was close to complete, an earthquake impending.

“We have to rest. We don’t have the energy to go on. We will be safe here tonight, as long as the fear of the legends can protect us. Not that we have much of a choice.” There was combative brainstorming for alternatives, but without consequence.

When she woke, the foot of the giant god did seem closer, but it was almost impossible to tell, especially with only the flickering light of Ember to go by. Several had stayed up most of the night telling legends of the mountain god herself from hundreds of years ago, telling of how people had enraged her, how she had turned kingdoms to dust overnight that had taken centuries to build, and about people who lived on her with houses of thousands of hollow sticks designed to bend with her movements.

She began packing and they all rushed to evacuate their tenuous shelter. The wolves had long since gone, their lives soared by the giants despite a meal having escaped. “We have to go across. If we go back to the plains, we’re as good as dead.”