A Guardian's Ascension (Chapter 19) (Patreon)

Signs of Sophia’s conquest over the latest incursion an hour before still smoldered on the forested horizon, but any atmospheric dread the outpouring monsters’ presence might’ve brought the villagers – if any at all this time – had dissipated within minutes of their resident Guardian raising her humongous sword and shield for the second necessary time in their defense. None of her people could forget how flawlessly the giantess had mowed down the orc invaders and dracuses of all orders a month before, so their security was even better assured this time. And rather than cowering in their homes while the dirty work was done, crying and clutching one another in hopes that no beasts came clawing at their doors, many folks ventured out into the streets, even to the edges of the surrounding hills, to witness as much of their champion in the heat of her battle-hardened glory as they dared. If she had the time to do so while single-handedly trouncing an entire army of snarling beasts, Sophia might’ve gently discouraged such overly-courageous and questionably-foolish behavior on the part of these astonished onlookers who crept so near to the bloodbath. But it soon became clear to the entire village population that they probably could watch the battle from up-close like a spectator sport and still feel confident that they would return home intact at the end – luckily none were crazy enough to test this notion, much to their titanic overseer’s later relief, but it had crossed some of their minds nonetheless.

Her less-combative duty which immediately followed the battle, surrounded by scores of miniscule adorers while she caught her breath on the cliffside, was considerably easier for Sophia this time, thanks to all these weeks of practice at becoming exactly the Guardian her people needed her to be in both power and ideation. Though she occasionally still felt some of the growing pains that resulted from allowing hundreds of her one-time equals to shower her with unconditional praise, bring her devotedly-prepared food from their tables, and regularly wash the boot-grimy filth from her enormous bare feet, the giantess considered herself to have made tremendous strides in this area. She had begun to greatly cherish these opportunities to connect with her people, not just uncomfortably tolerate it, no matter how drastically her life’s pathway had changed. And in spite of how long it had taken her to come to terms with that reality, Sophia did indelibly comprehend now that she was changed: not so much that no trace of her old self remained, because she still loved and protected these people as heartily now as she ever did, but enough that she no longer labored under the apparent misapprehension that she could simply play-act through her previous domestic fantasies as a five-hundred-twenty-seven-foot-tall warrior behemoth. Things were different now and they always would be.

As the Guardian made no excuse for herself to escape the crowd’s adulation through a portal this time, the collective post-victory enthusiasm was allowed to last for far longer, which Sophia took advantage of to greet and personally ask after as many individuals as she could. However, since the incursion had come rather early in the morning, many folks still had much daily survival-necessary business to attend back home, which the giantess made it clear she remembered, and accordingly wanted no one here to be kept up late into the night completing their chores just because they were accidentally held hostage by good manners to their leviathan soldier-on-call. For this reason, the people gratefully parted ways from their Guardian today rather than the other way around, and Sophia was gladly beholden to no more heart-wrenching doubts about her place in the world. No false smiles were required. Just when it seemed the last tiny straggler had made their way back through the sloping woodland separating the battlefield from the village, however, and the giantess herself was about to return to the Citadel for a report on her most-recent success, she noticed movement near the foot of the cliff. She recognized the body language as that of her older brother Allian before she even saw his face to confirm who was waiting for her.

“I see your technique has improved since you first picked up one of Father’s swords and got it stuck in the side of a tree.”

Sophia smiled lovingly and gave him a humble nod at this address, glad to find that her pulse wasn’t pounding from the potential anxiety of hearing her brother speak more than a couple congratulatory words to her for the first time since her Guardianship ascension. Of course Allian remembered that occasion fifteen-plus years before, when Sophia – barely strong enough to hold a newly-crafted sword aloft – let out a battle cry and then chopped the blade into a nearby trunk, where it became embedded too deeply in the wood for her to pry it loose without her brother’s help. Per usual, the young smith’s voice was dry, deep, and somewhat distracted, as if his mind was already fixated on his next task in the forge, despite that same voice Sophia recognized from her once-taller sibling now coming out of a being small enough to balance on the pad of her fingertip. He didn’t laugh when he said these words, but then again, Allian had never been much of an outward joker, even when he was literally telling jokes that used to reduce his kid sister to guffawing tears.

“Yes, I would hope so. Not greatly improved, mind you. But enough to get the job done.”

“After you first left us, to train, there was talk of crafting a new sword for you. One large enough for you to use in battle. A sort of welcome-home gift. I… don’t think many people, including our parents, really understood just how… large… of a sword would be required for you now, until they saw you with their own eyes.”

“It surprised me, too. Even after I met the other Guardians for the first time. I suppose you still had to talk Father out of attempting to make that sword anyway, even if it would’ve taken up more material alone than he uses in a year?”

“Fortunately not. You convinced him on your own.”

“…though, it would’ve been just as much your decision, as the forge will belong to you soon enough.”

Allian didn’t answer aloud, but bobbed his head with a soft grunt of assent. His tiny staid expressions still weren’t the easiest for Sophia to read while he was still standing so far below next to her readorned boot heels, but she sensed awkward anticipation in his diminutive frame. Practical as he was, her brother never made decisions without necessary purpose, especially when there was work waiting to be done. Something must have been weighing on his mind to make him stay here alone like this, particularly when he’d waited so long to do so since her return home as a sky-reaching armored titaness.

“Would you like to speak to me up here? Or are you going to remain down there to say whatever you’ve come to say?” she asked with an affable smile. Ordinarily Sophia would’ve skirted around such a question of her miniature charges with more overly-saccharine hemming and hawing, but this was her brother, and she knew he would only be made uneasier by anything less than blunt directness.

“I have wondered what it’s like to see the village from so high up.”

Knowing this was the fullest answer she’d get, the Guardian laid her open palm and outspread fingers beside her foot, giving Allian time to clamber aboard. She was glad when he didn’t hesitate, but pulled himself right to the center of the fleshy platform as if it was the most natural thing in the world, even though she internally guessed it had to be a bizarre experience to be so dramatically dwarfed in the hand of the little sister he once aided in wrenching a tree-lodged sword free before their father noticed. For that reason, Sophia didn’t spend whole minutes ever-so-slowly raising her palm in case the elevation spooked her passenger, like she might have several weeks ago, but brought him right up to eye level.

“And now that you’ve seen it?”

“It really is something,” he said, venturing across the reach of his sister’s immense fingers for a better view of the rolling landscape far below. Though he still answered as sedately as before, Sophia knew this was the equivalent for Allian of a stupendous jumping-up-and-down exclamation, which again pleased her. As he was facing away from the Guardian’s face when he spoke next, in the same sober tone no less, it took her by surprise: “I’m sorry I didn’t come to you sooner.”

Sophia’s eyes widened. Her brother wasn’t the proudest person, but he also wasn’t quick to apologize – not unless he’d badly errored. She made sure not to appear aghast when Allian turned back toward her face with his arms folded behind his back. Though she held no grudge against him or anyone for their hesitancy in reuniting with her, Sophia wasn’t about to lie to herself either. She’d felt both his and Vera’s absences.