The Giant Forest - COMPLETED - True to life adventures of preteens.

Stinking Up the Place

Once Sybil overcame the stench of ... he still wasn't able to recognize what he was smelling though he prided himself on being able to identify any cooked food ... Sybil noticed he was in a very large room. He reckoned that from where he was standing the room was about six or seven times his height from the floor to the ceiling. He thought that if he turned to the left and took 15 steps he might reach the wall, which wasn't actually a wall at all, he would reach the wall on one side. If he took another 20 steps or so to his right he could reach the opposite wall, which was really a wall. Sybil couldn't see the wall that would have been in front of him, provided the room was square, because there was something in the middle of the room blocking his view.

He took a few steps and found himself looking up at what appeared to be the ceiling of the room, but was not.

"That's strange. Why would there be a ceiling below a ceiling in the same room?" he muttered inaudibly to himself.

To his right a few steps away was a tall skinny pole made of something that looked like the pole of a driveway basketball hoop and backboard. Sybil trembled. He disliked basketball intensely. In fact Sybil despised any activity that required his feet to leave the ground. There was another similar pole to his left. And two more poles opposite him which he guessed to be about 2 pole lengths away if the poles were laying on the ground. They weren't.

Sybil stretched his hands high and nearly straight over his head. He could just barely touch the ceiling below the ceiling that blocked his view of the whole room.

A door opened.

Sybil saw two sets of legs come through the door. Their shoes reminded him of crocs but were made of something other than rubber. He couldn't tell. Their legs were skinny compared to his. But then all legs were skinnier than his. However, these legs were long. The legs reminded him of a skinny basketball player. "Oooo!!" He shuddered without flexing a muscle. Following the legs upwards from the crocs he saw bony, knobby knees. He could distinctly make out the knee cap. He couldn't see any higher because the lower ceiling was blocking his view and the legs were he thought to himself, "Really long!"

A high-pitched voice sounding like she was in a perpetual state of surprised screeched, "Melba ... Did ... you ... bring ... the ... veg ... ta ...bles?"

The other voice sounding like a grandmother with no teeth answered without seeming to open her mouth, "Yah ... Hilda. I ... have ... the ... veg ... ta ... bles. The ... boys ... are ... going ... to ... be ... hungry."

"Yah. They ... have ... been ... out ... fishing ... for ... new ... game. That ... al ... ways ... works ... up ... an ... appetite ... for ... them. They'll ... bring ... the ... meat ... to ... go ... with ... this ... treat ... we ... have ... boiling ... now."

Something fell on the floor. The CLANG startled Sybil who didn't see it coming despite his eyes opening to nearly double in size! He remained silent.

A hand with fingers nearly as long as his own arms reached down to pick it up. Sybil looked closely and saw it was a spoon! His eyes having adjusted to the darkness, Sybil could see what he concluded was a king of spice rack, but was instead a large variety of butterflies, pinned against the wall. Some had parts of wings missing. Others had the bodies torn away and the wings remained pinned to the rack.

Sybil instinctively decided he'd better hide. Though there wasn't anything wide enough for him to hide behind. And he was only beginning to see clearly what he might be hiding from!

The feet on one set of legs turned away from him and faced the wall that was originally on his left. The other set of legs pointed towards him under the 'ceiling' that he was under. The feet pointing at him were longer than his own legs!

He heard water running.

"I'll ... wash ... these ... veggies."

Thwop! Thwop! THWOP!!!!

"I'll ... cut ... up ... them ... up ... into ... small ... pieces."

Sybil's legs began to wobble uncontrollably, even more quickly than he thought possible. But they weren't going anywhere. They were knocking on each other.

Sybil realized then that he was under a table ... in a kitchen ... for giants. On the floor next to one pair of the legs he saw was a box. On the wooden box was written as if it had been branded into the side of the box - CKYHC The giants were boiling CKYHC, which is the Russian for ... skunk.

Sybil gulped loudly. Then gagged.

"Melba. Did ... you ... hear ... that?"