Chapter 40 - The Sleeping Giants

After dealing with the giant spider, which Se Heon and Mi Young later found out as the Queen of Arachnids, the both of them followed the path that led them towards a clear horizon.

When they reached the grassy field, both students fell on their backs against the green grass as they enjoyed the breeze around them.

Se Heon let out a huge sigh as he and Mi Young looked up at the clear blue sky up above. "It feels like we're walking for a whole eternity."

Mi Young chuckles at what the other party said.

It was true. The girl felt like they were walking on an endless path towards the area where the sleeping giants are supposed to be located. They followed the map Hanabi made and every landmark they see on the road matches the ones written on the map. However, they still hadn't reached the location that said a huge rock formation could be seen.

"Can we just sleep here for a moment and continue tomorrow?" Se Heon announces as he feels the exhaustion eating up his whole body.

"We can't! The Basilisk Dragon needs me." Mi Young says, wincing when her injury caused by the spider ached for a few seconds.

"Fine." Se Heon says while he sighs. He looked at Mi Young's bandaged shoulder and asked, "Are your shoulders getting better?"

"I hope so. It was only a scratch, don't worry." Mi Young says. The boy was still reluctant to let go of the subject but Mi Young assures him that she's fine, so he finally stops asking.

They stayed at the meadow for a while before they started their trek to the other side of the horizon once more.

"Look! Is that a rock?" Se Heon excitedly calls out. He was getting tired of all the walking so the appearance of the huge rock ahead of them is making him jump in excitement because finally, they're almost there!

Mi Young looks at the map she was holding and sees that the huge rock they are seeing resembles the rock formation drawn by Hanabi so she nods at Se Heon who is now bursting with energy. "Hey calm down."

"Quick! We're getting near."

Mi Young only shakes her head while eyeing the boy's childishness.

Upon arriving closer at the giant rock formation, both Mi Young and Se Heon marveled at the sight.

It wasn't just huge, it was also majestic. Looking at the rock reminded Mi Young of the glaciers of eyes back in her hometown, somehow it brought peace in her heart.

"Let's go in." Se Heon says while pointing at an entrance below the rock.

They both walked towards the rock formation in a careful manner, afraid that something bad might happen along the way. They were still tired from all the fighting so they hoped they wouldn't encounter any problems. Just not yet.

"Why is it called the sleeping giants?" Se Heon asks. He looked around their surroundings and found nothing but huge rock formations. "I don't see any giants that are sleeping."

"I don't know. Even Hanabi says she doesn't know why it's called the sleeping giants."

Just then the fog that was blocking the view of the two students as they venture out in the rocky fields, clears up.

The first thing Se Heon notices was the giant rock on his front that resembles a sleeping face.

Se Heon laughed while pointing at it, "It looks like a person! That is so cool."

Mi Young was about to agree as well but then as more fog clears up the black haired girl gets to finally see the whole place, and her eyes widen in shock.

"I don't know if you're just stupid or something's clogging your mind the moment we had a fight with that spider…" Mi Young starts to say which made Se Heon stop laughing. He was about to ask Mi Young if she just insulted him when the girl continued her sentence, "This doesn't seem to look like a coincidence. Look, every rock is shaped like a giant person!"

Se Heon furrowed his eyebrows upon hearing Mi Young's words. He scans their surroundings and that's when he realized that the girl was indeed right. Every rock formation around them is shaped like a person, all of which had the same facial expression on their faces.

"They are all sleeping?" Se Heon whispers, afraid that someone might hear them.

"I don't know if they are real people but they seem real to me."

"But how did they become like…this?" Se Heon asks. He walked towards a rock formation that wasn't as big as the others and realized it was a child. "Why did it become like this?"

Suddenly there was a huge rumble somewhere around them.

Both students huddled closer together while their backs touched one another, alertness and concentration evident on their faces.

"I don't like the sound and feel of it." Mi Young whispers as the rumbling continues.

The rumbling goes on for a couple of seconds and Mi Young notices that it seems like it's getting closer to them.

Suddenly, there was a huge earthquake that shook both students, which caused Mi Young to fell on the ground. When she looked up at Se Heon, the boy had covered his feet with earth which helped him stood still despite the tremor around them.

Mi Young fixes herself as she dusts off her dirty skirt, "Wow thanks for sharing your ability with me."

Se Heon was about to say something when a sandstorm suddenly appeared in front of them, practically blinding both their eyes.

Mi Young immediately called on her water barrier to shield herself.

"Wow thanks!" Se Heon shouts beside her as he shields himself using his rock shield. Mi Young laughs at the boy despite the growing uneasiness in her body as the sandstorm continues to happen in front of them.

When the rumbling stops, the sandstorm stops as well.

Mi Young and Se Heon slowly remove their shields to check what was in front of them.

Both of them hoped that they wouldn't wake up any of the giants because they didn't know how to deal with it.

"There's no one here?" Se Heon whispers when his eyes meet nothing in front.

Mi Young was about to agree when a small movement below them caught her attention.

The black haired girl looks down and sees a couple of eyes staring back at her.

"Ah!" Mi Young shouts in shock. The little creatures in front reflected her movements as they all shouted back in return.

Se Heon, who was oblivious to their presence, also screamed when he saw them. But his voice sounded more frantic than Mi Young's which earned her weird looks from the girl herself and the little creatures.

Mi Young changed her stance into a defensive one but the creature at the center and front shook his head while holding out both his arms up in the air. "Please, we don't mean to scare you. We're not here to fight."

Mi Young and Se Heon looked at each other before they called down their mana energies. They were also starting to get curious as to why a little creature can speak the human language.

"W-Who are you?"

"We're the dwarves from the Silent Village." The one at the center says. He's holding a staff on his hands and he has a headdress on top of his head while different necklaces adorn his neck. To Mi young, it looked like he's the leader of them all. "I am the Chief of the village. My name is Kah Moon Tii and these are my people."

Mi Young looks at the bunch of other dwarves on Kah Moon Tii's back and notices that they are much larger in size than the chief himself.

The chief must have noticed her expression because he chuckled and answered her mental question.

"Unlike other villages where the villagers choose the strongest and the buffest one among them to be their leader, the chief of our small village is chosen by the Moon Goddess."

"The Moon Goddess?" Se Heon repeats.

Kah Moon Tii nodded as he regarded Se Heon, "She is our sole protector and the one who grants us powers. We worship her along with the wolves around the Silent Village."

"You're not talking about the three-eyed wolves right?"

"Oh no. My apologies for the confusion. The wolves in our area are far different than those three-eyed beasts. The Silent wolves are tamed and they are our protectors together with these giants." Kah Moon Tii explains.

"Giants? These giants are real people?" Mi Young asks. Both Se Heon and her scanned their surroundings once more and looked at the sleeping faces of the rock formations. There are about hundreds of them all over the place. Both students couldn't believe such people can be real.

Kah Moon Tii sighs as he too looks at the giant rock formations around them. "Yes. They were the gentle giants that were once our allies. They are our neighboring village. But contrary to the belief of the humans, the giants and our tribe are friends and they protect us from harm."

"You mean to say that these giants are your protectors?"

"We give them mana so their way of repaying us is by protecting us from the dangers that lurk outside our village." The chief of the Silent Village says. There was longing and melancholy in his voice. Mi Young looks at them with sadness, she can imagine losing friends as well.

"What happened to them?" Se Heon whispers.

There was a sudden change in the chief's face. His expression became angry and he looked like he's out for blood. "The Dark Witch, Vexanalla, who lives in the Rocky Mountains got angry because we didn't share the Moon Goddess' power to her so she cursed our protectors, the giants, and turned them into rocks."

"Is the Moon Goddess' power that important?" Mi Young asks. She's getting curious as to why there are a lot of creatures trying to take away the power of the Moon Goddess.

"Yes. She is the one who gave us mana! Without her we won't have any resources as well. The Moon Goddess gives us everything we need. All we have to do is praise her and believe in her." The chief says with pure admiration and gratitude.

"If this Moon Goddess is indeed powerful, why can't she lift the curse of these giants?" Mi Young asks.

The chief looked at her with sadness, and while shaking his head the small man says, "The Moon Goddess is nowhere to be seen. She vanished without us knowing where she is. We tried to look for her and call for her. We did many rituals but she isn't responding."

"But how can that be?" Se Heon questions.

Chief Kah Moon Tii was about to answer the boy's question but another voice suddenly interjects, completely cutting him off.

"We believe the Moon Goddess was abducted."