The Sacrifice

The village is terrorized by a nameless beast and forced to give tributes. But this tribute bites.

          Thump. Thump. Thump.  The giant slowly, but steadily walked towards the Sacrifice. Thump. Thump. Thump.  The innocent villagers were fleeing in terror.  The Sacrifices’ family could be seen crying as they ran away from their daughter, Sara.  She had been chosen by the town council for her courageous, understanding, and forgiving temperament.  She resolutely stared the giant down her heart beating faster and faster.  Sara kept her face impassive, because she didn’t want to give this monster the satisfaction of seeing the fear that he inspired. 

Sarcolj Cyeb, the giant, lumbered toward the girl.  He was frustrated today.  He had killed and eaten the last Sacrifice right away, and that meant his house was a mess.  He hoped that this time he could control himself and wait long enough to have her clean up his home.  As he approached Sarcolj’s grotesque features shaped themselves into a rough parody of the human Sacrifices expression[1].                                                   The vertically blessed giant roughly grasped Sara and as soon as she was in his hand, he lunged forward into an awkward run.  Sara was being jounced around so much that she lost her temper with the giant.

          “Put me down, or slow down, before I lose it!” her voice screeched. The giant jumped in surprise.  Had this measly human spoke to him?  Before his slow brain could process the information and come to a satisfying conclusion, Sara looked him in the eye and ordered him to walk.  Startled by her fearlessness Sarcolj slowed down.

          Sara‘s heart had finally slowed to a normal rate by the time they reached the giants house.  The first indication she had that they were there was the stench.  It was a mixture of dirty socks, and rotting flesh.  On top of that smell, there was the smell, accompanied by the sight, of garbage filling up the entire house!  She looked around frantically as she was set down.

          “You… clean… and …make food.” Grunted the giant with some effort.  “Time… is… one day.” Then, he turned and ran off towards the closest village.  Sara looked around in disgust and despair.  “Well, the best way to deal with a problem is to attack it straight on, as my mother says.” She thought.  With a sigh, she rolled up her sleeves and arranged her suhsedure[2].  As she made piles of garbage and lit them on fire, she thought of how hard it was going to be to wash windows with them at least four times larger than her.  With a shrug, she moved on to the dirty clothes, and sighed again.  This was going to take a while.

***

After awhile, Sara had the house clean.  It was spick and span, a beautiful testament to her determination.  As she was about to relax, Sara remembered that she had to make victuals.  She, again, rolled up her sleeves, and pulled down the wide pie tin. After much manual labor she had made a crust large enough to fit in the pan.  In desperation, Sara carefully washed her feet and tied them to the two cutting boards from her basket.  She patted down the bottom with them, then untied them and used her feet for the more delicate work.  Once that was finished she went to the newly scrubbed and fumigated storeroom and pulled out several deer, chickens, and vegetables.  It took the entire night to cut up all of the food, and cook it. Sara carefully placed the tin in the fire, and curled up next to the fireplace.

 The next morning, awoke to find the giant asleep in his bed.  To her horror and disgust, his socks had been thrown on the floor and were so gross they were putrefying.  So, Sara dragged them out and burned them.  She then pulled the pot pie out of the fire and using a preexisting pulley system, hoisted it onto the table.

When Sarcolj woke up, he saw that there was a bouquet of flowers on the table, along with some orange juice and a delicious looking pot pie, but before he could reach the table he heard a scream.  It sounded like the Sacrifice’s voice, so he went charging down to the river.  He couldn’t lose this one now.  Just as he realized that there was no wild beast eating his new slave, he slipped on a huge bar of soap and landed in the river.

Sara ran away as fast as she could.  She could only hope that Sarcolj would take long enough to bathe that she would have time to poison his food.  Last night, she had found a bag of Mictone next to the garden shed.  It was EXTREMELY dangerous.  While it would kill him, he didn’t need to smell like he was dead until then. 

By the time Sarcolj had finished bathing, Sara had already sprinkled the pie with Mictime.  Sarcolj came roaring into the house and slammed down in chair.  He began attacking the food like a wild beast.  Soon, his eyes began to water and with a huge sneeze all of the Mictme came out of his nose.  Sara shook with anger.  Sarcolj was going to die if it was the last thing she did. 

Sara remained trapped for many months and every day she tried a new way to poison him.  After being unsuccessful for the 121^st time, she discovered a little rhyme clear up on the bricks in the chimney.

To make it up this far

You must be above par.

A secret I’ll tell

If the giant you’ll fell.

You must take the fruitless land

And make your best pie by hand.

The color grey you must wear

This is a frightful task.  Beware.

-Barren Grey

Her heart leapt.  This was one of the nursery rhymes that she had been taught.  It was about a terrible poison that would destroy a plague upon the land and in the rhyme it lists the ingredients and their amounts.  Sara got an immediate start. She cooked and baked, and bustled around for another month.  On the final day, she braided her hair and dressed carefully in her best clothes.  She made Sarcolj a beautiful cream pie with delicate whipped topping and caramel drizzle.  Without hesitation, Sarcolj swept the entire confection into his mouth.  Suddenly, he stiffened, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he began to convulse.  Sara looked down and smiled and her torturer. She felt only a vague sense of pity for the creation and it was gone.  With a smile she packed up belongings and got the heck out of Dodge. As she walked along she sang a little nursery rhyme.

One cup dart berry

Two cups flower berry

Soon it will be ready

Hmmm. Hmmm. Hmmm.

---

[1] Giants are incapable of forming any expression of their own.  They need a human face so they can create expressions.  When they approach a human they must copy the expression. The giants have no choice, it is in their nature.

[2] A special outfit worn only by those about to be married and Sacrifices.  Consists of an apron, dress, braided hair, and basket of items used to take care of a home.

Author's Note

This is just a funny little story, but it isn't polished yet. I hate leaving things unfinished. So any reviews will be appreciated.