What a Pity About Sir Nicholas

Tick-tock...

Tick-tock...

A crisp dripping sound came from deep within, as if the stalactites were seeping out of the underground water hidden in the stone walls. The liquid fell onto the stones and splashed again, giving rise to a slight chill. There was no light in the dim cave; only the moonlight reflected off the snow could be used to barely make out a few feet of the path.

The air was thick with the stench of rotting flesh, as if maggots were devouring freshly slaughtered, bloody wild boar meat.

Loren and Hermione ventured into the cave through the cracks in the cave wall. The cave was shallower than they had expected. After darting a few steps, they were blocked by two huge mounds of earth and two moss-covered rocks.

The two Ermine looked at each other, their dark, shiny eyes reflecting the same question:

We've reached the end of the cave, but why haven't we seen the giant?

Huff... huff...

The air whistled through the cave, creating a subtle resonance. Loren and Hermione looked toward the source of the sound, their pupils contracting and their breath catching in their throats.

The mound of earth in front of them, which looked like a small hill, rose and fell slowly with their deep breathing. It was not a mound at all, but the curved and high spine of a giant. The two moss-covered objects next to it were not boulders, but two heads covered with thick, fern-colored hair like seaweed. Their faces were bruised and swollen, so badly beaten that their normal flesh color was no longer visible, which was why the two people did not recognize them.

Their simple clothes, patchwork of Bark and animal hides, were tattered and worn. Patches of bruised and swollen skin were exposed on their torsos and shoulders, suggesting that there was hardly any healthy flesh left on their bodies. The two sleeping giants were not Orr, whom they had seen from afar during the day. They were less injured, with almost no crippling or fatal wounds, and were fast asleep.

Loren and Hermione observed carefully. The cave seemed to have become lively at some point. Deep within the dark rocky cavern, besides the deep whistling of the wind and the crisp, faint sound of water droplets falling, there was also a mournful sobbing sound. The sobbing creature was enormous, its throat strained as it whimpered, but its vocal cords, thicker than drumheads, vibrated, producing a muffled, booming sound.

The two tread lightly, climbing over two undulating mounds of earth, and following the direction from which the rumbling and sobbing sounds came, they arrived at a deeper part of the cave.

They were two much smaller giants, a man and a woman, tending to Orr's wounds.

The male giant wore a dirty brown smock, also made of animal hides and Bark. One leg was bent under his body, and the other leg dragged to his side, bent at a completely abnormal angle. He mainly moved by using his hands to support himself on the ground. Each time he moved, he would grit his teeth, stop, groan, and exhale.

Intense pain caused cold sweat to bead on his forehead, which dripped down his cheeks and onto the ground with a soft, rhythmic sound.

That leg was broken, but it was forcibly straightened and aligned. Even with the giant's physique, it would take a very long time to heal...

Loren and Hermione turned their gaze to the female giant beside them. Unlike any giants they had seen before, the female giant was dressed in clean pure animal skin clothing, with no obvious wounds on her body. She was focused on treating the man's injuries, but her right hand was very stiff and her movements were very limited, probably due to a dislocated shoulder blade.

A chilling scraping sound rang out.

The sharp stone blade cleaved through flesh and blood, like a blunt scalpel, painstakingly cutting and scraping off the bits of flesh clinging to the wound. The scraps slid down Orr's bones and fell beneath him, making the accumulated flesh grow even larger.

Orr stared unfocusedly at his arm, which revealed exposed bone. He didn't cry out in pain, didn't frown, and no more cold sweat broke out on his forehead. His lips moved as he watched his brother Gale and sister Mill, who were busy working despite their pain. He seemed to want to say something, but the remaining strength in his body wasn't enough to support him speaking.

"Woo... Moo..."

Mill wanted his brother to talk less so he could conserve his energy to fight Death.

From the initial grimaces and cries of pain when her wound was being treated, to the later profuse sweating, and finally to the gradual numbness and expressionlessness, as if she felt neither pain nor itching, her beloved older brother Orr, no longer responded to his sister's calls.

He couldn't respond; he couldn't hear.

This is different from the time seven years ago when he swore to eat the bird that pooped in his hair, climbed a giant tree, broke branches, and slashed his stomach. It's different from the time five years ago when he went to the snowy mountain to pick white flowers from a cliff for her and broke his leg. It's different from the time three years ago when he challenged a giant four feet taller than him and was beaten so badly he couldn't get up for a month...

This time, her brother was dying. He still held a piece of cooled, fatty meat in his palm, but could no longer offer it to her. His eyes were closed, and his dark face was unusually pale, devoid of any color. All the blood in his body had seeped into the soil. Holding his muscular arm, Mill could clearly feel that the life within her brother, who had aspired since childhood to become the strongest warrior in their tribe, was slowly draining away.

"Ha..."

Mill stared blankly at her brother as he slowly closed his eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. She opened her mouth but no sound came out; instead, she let out a deafening yet silent, mournful wail.

"Can you speak the wizarding language? Although I can roughly guess what you giants are trying to say, I can't speak giant language. It's a bit difficult for a wizard's vocal cords to produce such sounds." A faint voice echoed from the depths of the dark cave.

"Witch... Wizard?" Mill and Gale had lost his leg, turned to stare at a cliff face from which emerged a short young man and woman.

"Ha, just as I thought. There's no reason why, but I felt you just knew how to say it—"

Hermione tugged at the hem of his robe and urged anxiously, "Stop talking nonsense and help save them!"

"They didn't say they wouldn't save him, why are they in such a hurry..." Loren muttered as he took a few steps forward, floating up to examine the dying giant's injuries.

"[Lumos] "

The silvery-white light at the tip of the wand was the same color as the disc in the sky, but it wasn't as cold. The dark cave became brighter because of this light, and even the unconscious, dying giant's eyelids twitched. The thick aura of death seemed to be dispelled by the fluorescent light.

Watching the man's shadow flicker on the stone wall, Mill felt a strange warmth.

The Cutting Charm removed the dead flesh from the wound, the Levitation Charm cleared away the dirt and stone chips according to the wizard's will, and the Gillyweed essence was poured onto the horrifying cracks in the flesh, like molten lava poured into ice. The scorching heat spread from the gradually cooling body, Orr's chest pounded violently, as fast as a trapped beast escaping an avalanche.

A large bucket of Skele-Gro was poured in, and Orr, who had lost consciousness, shuddered, his breathing returning to normal. The Potions class professor's good student status played a powerful role here. Although these were all classwork assignments from Hogwarts' upperclassmen, those that could be collected and stored were all up to standard. Such a generous and indiscriminate pouring of it in could even save him from being bitten by Fire Dragon.

It's a pity that Sir Nicholas's execution was carried out too quickly. If he had been given a reprieve for hundreds of years, Loren might have been saved by the sticky skin on his neck.

Mill and Gale stared at him for a moment, hot tears falling from their eyes.

"There's still a little over half a bucket left, here you go." Loren shook the wooden bucket containing the Skele-Gro and handed it to the giant with the broken leg.

Gale paused for a moment, then slowly took the bucket. Throughout the process, his gaze kept drifting towards his sister Mill's face. Only when he saw her nod did he relax, take the Skele-Gro, tilt his head back, and pour it into his mouth with the same boldness as Old Dodd drinking Winky juice.

Hermione approached Mill, looked up at the giantess's massive figure, and said gently, "I know you have many questions, such as who we are, what our purpose is, and why we are here. We can answer these questions, but before that, perhaps we should get to know each other first. What do you think?"

Loren stood next to Hermione and casually tossed an Muffliato the spell.

Mill glanced at the two little wizards, then at his sleeping brother, and without much hesitation, spoke first, "You can call me Mill, and that's Orr."

Gale's face contorted from the pungent smell of the Skele-Gro, and she grimaced as she spoke, "I... I am Gale, we are... we are siblings."

"You can just call me Granger, this is Morgan ..."

"I've basically treated your Orr's injuries. When he wakes up tomorrow morning, his bones should be almost healed, so don't worry."

Loren felt that the three giant siblings seemed very different from the giants outside, so after a brief thought, he asked directly and clearly, "Our purpose in coming here is to find two... two wizards, or rather, Half-Giant, shorter than you, but much taller than us."

Hermione added, "They should have visited your giant race not long ago and brought precious gifts. If you hadn't been hiding in the cave, you should have seen them."

"We have indeed met, more than once." Mill looked down at the two of them, his large eyes filled with sorrow. "It was a week ago..."

At that time, the giant Gurg was still Cacus Kakus. He was the ugliest and laziest man in the tribe, but also the tallest warrior. In the first few years after he took office Gurg, he always brought back the most prey, defeated the fiercest beasts, weighed more than two male elephants, and had skin thicker than a rhinoceros and a wild boar combined.

In recent years, however, he has stopped hunting in the Mountainous Area and instead sits in the most comfortable Cave, waiting for others to bring him food.

It was a bright, sunny morning. As Cacus lay by the lake, roaring for people to put a dead sheep into his mouth, two Half-Giant carrying gifts descended the hillside. A magical flame, never extinguished and forever warm, came to Cacus's feet, bowed, and placed the gifts...

"Cacus doesn't speak the wizarding language, so he called two giants to act as translators. They agreed to talk the next day and would bring gifts..." Mill's voice was soft, as if he was worried about disturbing Orr who was sleeping. "The conversation on the second day went smoothly. I just listened in. Hagrid conveyed Dumbledore's goodwill. He stopped your government from killing the last giants in Britain, which is us... Everything was fine. They agreed to continue the conversation on the third day and bring more gifts..."

"What happened next?"

If all goes well, Hagrid will not be stuck on his way back, and the giants will not need a new Gurg.

Hermione's eyes widened slightly, and she asked in surprise, "Did the Death Eater suddenly attack them while they were talking?"

Mill shook his head and whispered, "McNair and Crouch, those two found the Golgomath. Hagrid said they were both executioners who enjoyed slaughter, so they got along very well. The two wizards incited the Golgomath to start a fierce battle, which dragged almost all the giants in the tribe into it. That night, the depression was in Depression. Orr told me to stay in the cave, and all I could hear outside was the gathering of more and more giants, getting more and more chaotic. When the sun came up the next day, the snow was red, Cacus's head sank to the bottom of the lake. The Golgomath, wearing his helmet, became the new Gurg..."

Hagrid and Maxime were unaware of the Death Eater lurking behind the riot. They went to meet Golgomath with a gift they intended for Cacus, but were almost caught on the spot. Maxime used magic to help them escape in a hurry...

"They were unwilling to give up their original mission and planned to avoid the Golgomath, so every night they would sneak into the caves to talk to the other giants." Mill's eyes showed sadness as he shook his head. "But they didn't expect that McNair and Crouch were hunting them down and had discovered the traces of their nighttime activities, and the next day they cornered them in a Cave."

"Could it be that you two..." Loren looked thoughtfully at the injuries on the two men.

Hermione was moved.

"Hagrid and Maxime didn't drag us down. They held off the two Death Eater for a long time and eventually escaped." Mill shook his head again. "Our injuries were inflicted by Golgomath's men, who said we helped his prey escape while he was sleeping."

"How can he be your leader?" Hermione couldn't help but ask.

"That's how we giants are. Every few weeks we get into a fight, either beating someone half to death or getting half to death ourselves. Men fight men, women fight women, and if someone dies, they die. The survivors will keep fighting, even if it's not for food, fire, or spacious caves. They'll still fight. In your wizarding terms, it's called the instinct to kill each other..."

"And what about you?"

Loren squinted at the three giant siblings in the cave and asked softly.

Compared to the other simple-minded giants, these three were more rational, more patient, knew how to protect themselves, and were able to suppress the violent impulses within their bodies.

Orr, the eldest brother, would worry about his injured younger siblings and save some roasted meat for them. Gale and Mill would also worry about Orr. Among the savage giants, their humanity was like a torch in the night, clearly visible on distant mountain ridges and in dark caves.

Most importantly, even their names are different from those of the other giants.

"We..." A glimmer of light appeared in Mill's eyes.