"…That's the story," the man responsible for all this trouble let out a long sigh, as if he were the one most wronged. "Satisfied? You can let me go now."
After hearing the story, Alice and I exchanged incredulous glances—everything that had happened here was solely down to the carelessness of the man called Jack standing right in front of us.
"Alice." I called out, and the girl knew instantly; the root coiling around the man's neck was tightening its grip, making him scream in pain.
"H-Hey! Let me go!" He shouted, barely able to form the words, whilst Alice laughed wickedly, looking just like a villain in the films.
"I never said that if you answered, we'd let you go, did I?" Alice said, and this made Jack's eyes widen in surprise—she really hadn't said anything of the sort.
I glanced at his hand, which was clutching a huge, shiny gold ring. "Where did you get that?" I asked before nudging Alice, signalling her to loosen the root that was choking the man's neck.
"This… belongs to—" Before he could explain, we felt an incredibly powerful tremor—I'd never realised earthquakes could happen high up in the sky. "It belongs to the creature causing this tremor!"
The heavy footsteps were clearly audible and felt distinctly beneath us; when I turned around, I saw a huge man, and we were nothing but ants that he could easily stamp out. "He's huge!" I exclaimed in awe, whilst Alice stood gaping in shock.
"…I'd believe you now, even if you said someone could fit a bicycle in their mouth," Alice muttered. The giant glanced in our direction and fixed his gaze on the gleaming gold ring on Jack's hand.
"GIVE ME BACK MY RING!" he roared, his voice so loud it felt as though it would shatter my eardrums on the spot; he strode towards us, but with every step he took, I felt as though I were being lifted off the floor.
"Let's get out of here!" said Alice, pulling my wrist. I turned round and saw Jack had managed to wriggle free from Alice's roots and was running after us.
"He's quite skilled—he might make a good Fable" I muttered. By then, he'd already caught up and was running alongside us.
"What on earth are the Fables?" Jack asked, still clutching the rings in both hands—I was impressed by his tenacity.
"Lucky people," I replied straight away. We stepped out through the door; just as footsteps drew near, Jack leapt out without hesitation, whilst Alice and I were startled by his action.
"He must have been infected by the Green virus too."
"My name is Red."
I turned round and saw the giant right behind us; its hands were reaching out for us, but we immediately jumped off the house built atop the clouds. "I wonder how that man managed to survive," I muttered.
Alice glanced at me. "You keep going on about him—why? Do you fancy him?" she said before floating off, the card still stuck to her shoe—and mine.
"I was just saying what was on my mind," I replied—Why did she assume that? Do smart people really just think about things that aren't related? Huh, I noted that.
I looked to the side and saw Jack, who was shocked to see that we'd also jumped and were catching up. "You two?! Why's there wind coming out of your shoes?!" he asked in bewilderment.
"It's a capability of our weapon called Everafter; you might get one too," I said, and he looked even more baffled by my explanation.
I finished off the last of the doughnut I'd taken, and Alice looked surprised to see this. "You can fit a slice that big into your mouth? I'm impressed." she muttered, and I responded with a burp.
The ground was getting closer; we were like asteroids about to collide with Earth, except we could land softly without damaging the road.
As for Jack, before his body could be crushed upon impact, he'd already clung to a root and climbed down, whilst dropping his ring onto the road.
When his feet finally touched the ground, he jumped for joy. "I'm rich! I'm rich! I'm rich!" He repeated those words over and over.
But a sense of unease sent shivers down my spine; I lifted my head and saw a giant foot about to land. "Oh" I gasped, and a card had already embedded itself in the ground, creating a stone shield to protect us from the impact of that stomp.
We could feel the tremors as if the earth were about to crack; once the shaking had subsided, the stone barrier slowly receded back into the ground, revealing a giant's foot before us.
The giant lifted its foot, and there I could clearly see Jack's flattened body and the blood splattered across the giant's sole, with that gold ring also broken from being accidentally crushed underfoot.
Alice glanced at me and demanded an explanation, saying he might be a Fable. "I never claimed everything I said was true," I said.