[Belarus] - Entering the Giants Forest

Looking out at the sight before them Oz and Alfreda were in awe. The trees within the 'Giants Forest' were hundreds of times taller than the ones in the forest they were currently in. After entering through the 'keyhole' they had finally entered into the giants domain and looking around Oz felt again that he had underestimated the magic hidden away in this world.

The ward that was encompassing the giants forest was truly ancient and it seemed as though it completely cut off this location from the rest of the world. Not only that, the inside of the ward was perfectly designed for giants to reside in. One word made its way to the forefront of Oz's mind as he looked around the location they were now in.

'Pocket Dimension...'.

To Oz, it seemed as though this 'giants forest' was like a pocket dimension. It felt separate from the world as he knew it. Oz was snapped out of his wonder as Alfreda prodded his shoulder.

"Master, what's the plan now?".

Hearing Alfreda's query, Oz took a breath and activated his eyes looking around the surroundings. To his surprise though no giants seemed to be in the vicinity despite the appearance of houses in their sights. These houses stood tall, towering above Oz and Alfreda and seemed perfectly designed to fit multiple giants within them.

As Oz looked around with more focus he noticed that there seemed to be 'presences' closer towards the centre of the forest.

"Looks like they have convened for some reason..."

"Convened?"

"Yeah, all the abodes around us are empty yet I can see deep into the forest towards the centre that there are many presences gathered".

"I wonder what's happening...".

Oz smiled as he put his hand onto Alfreda's shoulder.

"Only one way to find out... Let's go take a look".

Throughout all of this Oz and Alfreda were still of course cloaked. As Oz stated when they first entered into the forest, this was unknown territory. Until Oz was sure of his position and knew he had all the cards in his hands despite whatever situation arose, Oz would continue to stay hidden.

After their brief talk both Oz and Alfreda took a moderate pace through the forest towards its very centre. Oz basked in the scenery, the trees that seemed to stretch towards the clouds and the seemingly shoddily built massive houses that were made for the sole purpose of housing the giants that resided here. It was a strange situation, feeling as though he had shrunk down to the size of an ant.

'Giants are said to be around 20-25 feet tall... 4x taller than me...'

Many thoughts rolled through Oz's ever active mind as both him and Alfreda got closer and closer to the centre of the forest, as they got closer however a noise started to reach their ears. As the got closer still the noise started to be more coherent. Both Oz and Alfreda started to realise what the sound was.

It was the sound of battle.

"Could there be a conflict going on right now? Maybe even an invasion?".

Oz shook his head as he had no clue what could be going on himself. The sounds of battle seemed brutal and accompanied with the sounds were cheers and jeers. The sounds got clearer and clearer as the two neared closer to the centre. Finally both Oz and Alfreda found themselves in front of a large bush and behind that bush seemed to be a clearing where the sound was coming from.

Pushing the bush out the way and passing through with Alfreda, the culprit of all the noise was soon shown to them and the sight that they both viewed was a sight that would be burned into their minds forever.

Hundreds of giants were gathered, littering the clearing. All of them were looking towards the middle of a clearing where two giants were currently battling. One of the giants was incredibly stocky yet seemed on the shorter side for a giant reaching around 20 feet tall whilst the stocky giants opponent was immensely tall reaching a height of 27 feet, 2 feet taller than the 'norm' established in the wizarding world.

Both the giants that were in combat had wounds coating their bodies. Blood seemed to spill from every orifice, bruises were present on every body part that was visible. Despite these injuries though the two giants fighting roared out continuously as they clashed again and again ignoring their conditions.

Seeing this brutal exchange Oz's blood churned with battle intent. In his life up till now he had only ever battled with magic, using spells to disorient, disarm and if needed kill his opponents. Seeing these giants fight so brutally and ferociously he realised that although this was a 'Magical World' such fights would still be prevalent especially within beast communities like this. Giants were said to wield magic yet their strength was their main faucet of power. Their physiques were even enough to shrug off a lot of spells. Seeing the stocky and tall giant fight, Oz felt a deep desire to fight like this himself.

Whilst Oz was lost in his thoughts the stocky and tall giants fight was coming to a close. Both were incredibly worn out and so bloodied you couldn't see a part of their body that wasn't caked in blood. Both however didn't seem to falter as they roared towards the sky charging at each other for one last exchange. The surrounding giants all cheered as they viewed the climax of the fight.

The tall giant had a longer reach than the stocky giant so as it got close enough to attack it launched its fist out at an incredible speed, enough to make the wind around its fist disturbed by the sheer ferocity. Surprisingly, the stocky giant didn't back away from the fight and instead zoomed towards the oncoming fist. Just as it seemed as though the tall giants fist would crash into the stocky giants face, the stocky giant dodged to the left and sent out a powerful punch towards the tall giants gut. The fist unleashed by the stocky giant connected with the tall giants gut and the fist that planted firmly onto the tall giants gut seemed to penetrate the tall giant going straight through its stomach and out the other side.

The stocky giant retracted its fist looking down at its opponent that had now fallen to the floor. The tall giant who was on deaths door seemingly let out one final smirk before it died.

"How brutal...".

Alfreda's whisper managed to find its way to Oz's ears as the two watched the climax of the giants fight. Oz couldn't help but nod his head along with her words. Thinking back to what the death eater said in Minsk, Oz realised that these giants were truly beasts that valued strength. They didn't even care if their own kind was killed in a match like this. To them, the winner was the king whilst the loser was the thief left to die.

As the life left the tall giants eyes the surrounding crowd roared out in glee. The stocky giant that had won the fight raised its fist to the skies and proceeded to roar out consistently at its win. The sound of the giants seemed to reverberate through the entire forest at an incredibly loud volume.

'It's no wonder such an advanced ward is on this place... these damn things would instantly break the statute of secrecy roaring like that after every fight!'.

Just as the roars seemed to be growing louder and louder, they immediately simmered at the gesture of a single giant. Looking at this giant Oz immediately knew that it was the 'leader' of the giants here.

Much like Arauthator in the Carpathian mountains, this giant was the one at the helm of all these giants and judging by how quickly all the giants went quiet it was clear that this giant held extreme strength, the type of strength that was revelled in by all the giants present. Taking a closer look at the giant Oz realised that this leader was a female giant.

("---------------!").

The giant seemed to speak out to the crowd that had simmered at her command. Oz frowned hearing the giant speak.

'Damn it another fucking language roadbloc-'.

As Oz was cursing in his mind Alfreda whispered into his ear.

"'The duel has finally been settled, A new champion of the village has been birthed in blood!'".

Oz's eyes darted around to Alfreda who seemingly showed Oz a cheeky grin. Oz's eyes narrowed as he looked at her.

"You sly girl, why didn't you tell me you knew giants tongue?".

Alfreda let out a little giggle as she began to explain.

"I just wanted to surprise master... Although im incapable of speaking any human languages besides English, I was taught different beast languages when young, especially languages of beasts that had some intelligence... can you guess the reason why?".

Oz thought only for a moment before arriving to an answer.

"Diplomatic reasons..."

"Correct master. As a princess of an Elf Kingdom hidden away from the world it was paramount I had knowledge of how to converse with different magical beasts across the world. It's hard to explain in detail but across the world there's a 'kinship' between magical beasts due to the ever growing population of humans. For centuries different magical beast tribes have been connected in some way... Although im unsure as to how strong those connections are now".

Oz once again thanked his lucky stars for the gem that was Alfreda. With her here she could play translator for Oz.

"Well that will certainly help matters... Alfreda, If things were to go south would you be able to apparate us towards the keyhole we entered from?".

Alfreda took a moment to think about her masters question before nodding.

"Although this ward is ancient, Us elves are incredibly advanced in apparition. I doubt their would be any issues despite the complexity of the ward we are in".

Oz smiled as he remembered a section from the canon which highlighted an 'elves' ability to apparate. Dobby managed to apparate into Malfoy Manor despite the wards placed on the building and Dobby was only a house-elf, not an ancient elf like Alfreda. With this information in his mind Oz could wholeheartedly believe Alfreda's words here.

"Stay close to me... let us go and present ourselves to these giants...".

.

The roars and cheers of the giants in the crowd were all but simmered at this point replaced with random chatter that was undecipherable to any normal wizard. The leader look out at her kind with pride yet also a fearsome level of dominance held in her eyes too.

Giants had a strict hierarchy and positions within their ranks could be challenged constantly through battle. As the main leader she had been through her fair share of battles yet always came out on top solidifying her position. Today a battle was enacted between the stocky giant who was challenging the tall giants position as a 'Champion' in the village. With the stocky giant coming out on top, it would now take over the tall giants position.

The leader watched as the body of the previous giant was hauled off by a couple other giants out of the 'arena' all the giants were gathered around. The stocky giant that was jubilant with its win was still roaring out as it walked out of the arena itself leaving the arena completely clear. As the leader saw this she called out.

("WILL THERE BE ANY MORE CHALLENGES TODA-").

Just as the leader was about to finish her speak something unprecedented happened. In the middle of the arena that was previously clear appeared a wizard clad in black. The buckle of the wizards belt had a dragons head and the cape the wizard wore had purple accents all over it. Next to the wizard that had appeared was what appeared to be a witch. This witch had her hand firmly planted onto the wizards shoulder and her eyes held an unwavering confidence in the wizard she had appeared with.

At the appearance of this witch and wizard, the giants in the surrounding crowd clamoured and roared out. Some even looked like they were ready to pounce at these two uninvited visitors instantly. The leader however looked at the two with curiosity more so than anger at their random entry. She stared deep into the wizards eyes that had appeared, being absorbed by the deep purple colour the wizards eyes held.

Her heart beat madly looking at these eyes, something that would only happen when a worthy challenger appeared. The leader smiled as she held her hand out just in time, stopping the giants in the crowd from charging the uninvited guests.

("Little magic folk... Why have you come uninvited into our domain?").

As the leader asked the two intruders a question she saw the witch whisper to the wizard calmly. The wizards countenance didn't change in the slightest. He seemed to calmly talk back to the witch before staring back up to her. The witch to the wizards side called out, surprisingly in their own tongue.

("My master wishes to greet the leader of this giant tribe as well as fight your 'prodigy'").

Hearing the small witch speak in their tongue, all the surrounding giants including the leader were shocked. That shock didn't last long though as the subject of their shock shifted onto the words the little witch was saying. Hearing these words their gazes all became firmly planted on the wizard next to her. The leader looked deeply at the wizard again before bellowing out.

("WAHAHAHA, IMPRESSIVE! YOU ARE FAR MORE INTERESTING THAN THAT LITTLE GATHERING OF WIZARDS!").

As the leader called out again she once again saw the witch talk into the wizards ear. Seeing this again it was easy to realise that the wizard that wanted a fight wasn't able to speak their tongue. As the witch conveyed what the leader roared out the wizard's face showed slight confusion for a split second before returning back to his usual cold countenance. The surrounding crowd all seemed impressed with the confidence this little wizard showed. Some mocked him openly whilst others respected his bravery.

("You wish to fight our prodigy though? That can be arranged... Are you truly sure you want to do this though? Such a frail little human... you could be blasted away in a single punch!").

Although it seemed like the leader was looking out for the little wizard she was in fact mocking the little wizard. With these words the surrounding giants laughed loudly. Despite all this though the witch next to the wizard seemingly translated again and the wizard, instead of getting angry, showed a cold grin. Whispering back to the witch the witch called out in their tongue once again.

("My master wishes to fight your prodigy regardless~").

Hearing the little witches words the surrounding giants clamoured once again. The mocking seemed to simmer as they started to truly respect the little wizards bravery. Even the leader was starting to have a better opinion of these two despite them intruding.

("And who is our prodigy then fighting hmm? Surely you have a name little wizard!").

The little witch this time didn't correspond with the wizard and instead said the wizards name proudly.

("Oz Ambrosius").

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A/N - AND IM BACK. I have a lot of good things planned for this novel and hope to write them all however I will stress that chapters wont be daily or anything. I aim to at least release one a week but that amount can change dependant on my mood. If I force myself to write more when I don't have the mood/passion for it the quality will inevitably drop.

Anyway its good to be back. Happy new year to you all as well :)