Page 82 of Monster's Pet

The next second, he appeared, his cloak of invisibility dropped.

“Gràineileachd!” he called. “Show yourself!”

A bellow of laughter rang through the cavern again. “If you saw me as I truly am, your puny brain couldn’t handle it and you would go mad. But…”

The abruptness of the silence pressed on my ears. I strained to see something, anything.

“Since you have revealed yourself to me, I shall return the favor.” The voice wasn’t quite as ear-splitting, and I wondered what he had done, when I suddenly saw him.

He was sitting in the far corner of the cavern, his head brushing the ceiling, but not nearly as big as his original voice implied. He climbed to his feet, ducking until he reached the center of the cavern and could stand properly. He was wearing ratty gray clothing, no shoes, and his hair hung limply around his shoulders.

“Well? What do you think?” He spread his arms wide.

“What I think doesn’t matter,” Professor Akhtar replied.

“True, true.” The giant nodded his head sagely. “You must be after knowledge. You look like a scholar, now that I see you properly.” He leaned forward suddenly, his face impossibly large next to the ledge, and Paige whimpered.

“I was actually just hoping to keep you asleep,” Professor Akhtar said.

The giant sat back again with a scowl. “This is my world, too. You can’t keep me asleep forever.” His gaze flicked over the ledge, his nostrils flared. “You brought your students with you? What am I, some kind of field trip?”

“I came alone,” Professor Akhtar bluffed.

“Suppose you’re telling the truth. You screamed like two separate women when I first spoke. Who were you telling to turn invisible at the entrance to the cave, then?” The giant sniffed again. “I’m counting at least four beasts, one much older. The other three are bonded… Oh, that’s interesting.” He inhaled again. “One is a fully bonded he-beast, and he’s with a witch? Fascinating. One dryad; five, no, seven witches. One is older, like the beast. Have I covered everyone?”

I swallowed hard.

How could he possibly know all that just from smelling the air?

“Now thatyouknow thatIknow that you lied, what’s next, little witch?” The giant grinned, his teeth yellow with age.

“My goal remains the same, to request that you go back to sleep,” the professor said calmly.

The giant shook his head. “I have explored this mess of a world. Humans have really done a number on it. Wars, pollution, disease, needless death… It should be cleansed.”

“No!” Paige shouted. Her invisibility dropped, and she faced off against the giant. “I trapped you here! You can’t possibly have left!”

The giant leaned forward again, his eye the size of the petite witch. She trembled and took a step backward until she pressed against the wall of the cavern.

“Youwove this cage?” he asked mildly.

Paige nodded shakily.

“You made the holes too big,” he said, and sat back again.

“I… What?” she squeaked.

He nodded as if she’d said something brilliant. “You built your cage to contain my biggest self. I filled this cavern entirely. When the energy you drew from the ley lines woke me up, the first thing I did was shrink down to your size. Then I walked right through the bars and up to the surface. I traveled throughout the world, learned your languages, saw your cultures, your famines, yourcapitalism,” he spat the word as if it disgusted him. “This world is a mess, as I said. Why haven’t you fixed the problems? Why have you let it go this far? What’s the point of all your power if you only use it to better yourselves?”

“My cagewokeyou?” Paige wailed. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m not,” the giant replied.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Paige retorted.

The giant laughed. “Now I believe you. I wondered how someone so weak could have pulled this off. There’s the spirit in you.”

Professor Akhtar cleared his throat. “We do not use magic in the presence of mundanes. They would demand it be used to increase their power.”

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