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

Animals Are Like T-shirts

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Animals are like t-shirts. They come in different sizes. XS, S, M, L, XL and so on.

Senti would be XS size. Bligh would be M. And Mounty would be XXL. Mounty was huge. Part dog, part wolf. Many an animal backed away from a fight with Mounty. He could win fights just by being bigger than his opponent.

Cesar was off the charts. 10XL, 20XL? No one had ever seen any land animal the size of Ceasar. Except that is the giants who cared for Cesar. Or maybe it was it the other way around. Ceasar looked out for the giants.

Ceasar was not whale sized. But he was a whale of a land animal. Standing on all fours, Ceasar's back was as tall as Gorge, the giant who had gone to fetch him. When Ceasar reared back and stood up on his hind legs alone, the giants had to crane their necks back to look up to him. Ceasar was head and shoulders and half a body length taller than the tallest giant.

Gorge motioned to Ceasar to stand tall. Ceasar obliged.

Gorge spun his arms around as if he were trying to fly. It required a bit of effort but Gorge began to pick up speed. When Gorge appeared to reach max speed he stopped, bringing both hands up to his giant mouth and cupped his hands around his mouth as if they were a megaphone.

Ceasar responded to Gorge's action with a deafening ROAR! The other giants who had come to know what to expect had put their hands over their ears in anticipation. Still they had to duck and lean away from Ceasar. Gorge leaned in towards Ceasar in preparation. Even so, Ceasar's mighty effort pushed Gorge back upright, then caused him to take a few quick steps back.

Standing on the opposite side of the field, Sycamore, Senti, Bligh and Mounty felt the hot wind from Ceasar's roar.. The hair on each of their necks stood up. That is, on each of them except for Senti. Senti stepped forward as if she were up for the challenge, no matter the size of the opponent.

Next, Mounty stepped forward, straddling Senti beneath his huge body. Mounty, however, didn't rare up, back up or stand up. Mounty just stood there facing Ceasar.

Ceasar splayed his paws to show his enormous claws. He followed the roar with a growl that showed his teeth - fangs, incisors that everyone present realized were sharp enough and accompanied with jaws powerful enough that he could swallow Senti whole, maybe Bligh, too and perhaps most of Mounty.

Never had anyone imagined much less seen an animal as ferocious looking as Ceasar.

Sycamore might have preferred, to cut his losses, to run to save his own skin but later when he recounted this story he told his friends, "I decided I would rather stay and die with my friends than leave them behind to such a ruthless beast. Besides. Perhaps if he ate me first he'd be too full to eat you." Nobody laughed.

"I thought I would be able to tell anyone who would listen, that I did my best. But would it matter if my best still resulted in you all being eaten." Still, nobody laughed.

Ceasar had lived with the giants for many years, ate giant food and breathed in giant air. Consequently, this part-kodiak, part-polar, part-grizzly and all giant bear of a monster had grown to become a monster of a bear.

Mounty and Ceasar each took a step closer to one another. The giants giggled in glee. Sycamore wanted to pull Mounty back but Mounty was already out of reach. Besides there was nothing for Sycamore to grab onto.

Each took another step closer to one another. Without signal, much like two gunslingers drawing simultaneously, Ceasar and Mounty took off towards one another. Mounty got to full speed more quickly than Ceasar. Within moments they were each within lurching distance of one another.

Mounty took flight. Ceasar raised himself up slowly. Giant animals move slowly, too.

Mounty landed at Ceasar's chest. Ceasar didn't budge, nor did Mounty bounce off. Instead Ceasar's powerful forelimbs caught and wrapped around Mounty. Ceasar fell forward on top of Mounty and the two of them began to roll. Ceasar was large enough to smother Mounty, bite him in half or just slice him into several equal pieces with his powerful claws.

Instead, they just rolled. Over and over and over again. A few moments later Mounty was free and back on all fours. Ceasar, too. Mounty stood on his hind legs as if to show himself larger. Ceasar responded by shaking himself all over as if he were just given a bath and needed to get the wet off.

The two powerful beasts locked up again, both on their hind legs as if they two enormous beasts were doing a waltz. And once again each backed off. They each jumped at the same time and all eight paws were in midair at the same time.

There was no growling. No fur flying. No teeth showing. No blood. The two potent animals, it turns out, weren't fighting at all. They were ... frolicking. They were playing with one another.

Ceasar, the bear the size of a mountain and Mounty the wolf-dog with the heart of a bear knew each other! They were friends! Friends who had reunited in this most unlikely of places and circumstances. Nobody knew from when they became friends but all hoped that someday they would find out. Ceasar and Mounty were friends who had found one another again and were thrilled to see one another.

What else nobody could know was which animal would join which animal's side in the fight to come. Would Mounty join Ceasar to the joy of the giants, or would Ceasar take the side of Mounty and the kids?

Everyone in the field would find out very soon enough.