Gail Gathman

2/26/13

English 9

creative story

Gargantua

Once upon a time, there lived the ugliest, scariest, biggest monster in all of Greenville. He lived in isolation in the mountains, feeding on raw game. If anyone ventured in to his mountains, they would be frightened into complete rigidness, and twitch furiously until they finally died. And then the monster would come storming into the town screaming furiously because someone had invaded his land. The people would then run away to the neighboring town for about a week until he calmed down.

Gargantua sat in his cramped cave, at his table. He was sitting in his carefully perfected stone chair that he had labored on for over a year, and was finally done. He was sad to be done, however, because it had given him something to think about besides his miserable loneliness. He now sat, staring at his dinner of roasted deer, that he had carefully de-boned, and spiced with red chili pepper from his garden. Tears dripped from eyes onto his plate, as he tried not to think about his miseries. The thoughts came anyway, and he thought about his confusion of the behavior of the towns people. He couldn't understand what had happened to the few people that had come to his mountains. Why did they look so terrified and why had they gone rigid and then cold? He had tried to help them. He had run to the town screaming for the people to get a doctor. He didn't know what to do for the boy. He didn't have any medical training, or any medicine. But the people didn't seem to understand. They also looked terrified, and they ran the other way. Didn't they want to help there neighbor? He couldn't talk to them. They spoke a a very strange language. Some kind of sarcastic hissing sound. He picked up his fork and forced his now cold food down. It tasted like cardboard. Gargantua had recently given up on greeting anyone who came to his mountains. He didn't want anyone else dying because of him. If he ever saw someone coming he would run into his cave and hide.

Delilah sat in her room voraciously reading a book on giants. She had seen him. The “evil, possessed giant”. She was pretty sure that he wasn't as evil as everyone thought. When he came storming into town that day, everyone thought it was because he was angry that someone had come into his land. But she thought she saw a glimpse of fright in his own eyes too. He seemed to be trying to tell them something. But everyone else was too scared to notice. She had spent the entire night thinking about it. She had gone to look at the boy who died, and the giant obviously hadn't touched him. The boy had died of fright and nothing else. Maybe the giant had been trying to tell them that the boy died. That would explain his screaming noises and his frantic gestures. She journeyed to the city to get some books on giants, and their language. She resolved to learn everything she could about giants, and to try to learn their language as best she could. Then she would go to the mountains.

After six months, Delilah was ready. She packed her bags, brought her book and set off for the giant's mountain. When she finally got there, she was surprised that she didn't see him right away. He was giant after all. He should be easy to spot. Also, she had read that giants were really friendly and loved to greet people that came to their land. She figured that he was probably to scared to come out of his cave for fear the person would get frightened to death. She looked up where giants slept. They usually had deep caves. Lovely. There were about 50 caves in these mountains.

Gargantua sat in his cave breathing deeply. Another person had come. She looked different from the others though. Less timid. More determined. But maybe the others looked that way too, he just hadn't noticed because he was too excited about greeting them. 30 minutes went by. He started feeling claustrophobic in that tiny cave.

Delilah was on the tenth cave. Her procedure was to peak in any holes, and then try to knock somehow and call out in giant that she wasn't scared. So far, no luck. It had been 2 hours now. But then she spotted something. Color; compared to this barren waist land. She walked closer to it. She kept walking for quite a while but it didn't seem to be getting much closer. But that was in fact a good sign. It meant that it was giant land because everything was so big, that you could see it two miles away, or more. She set of toward it.

When she finally got there she squealed in delight. She saw a nice looking garden, and a cave. She walked up to cave knocked on the stone as best she could and then called out in giant. From in side, Gargantua was trembling. He didn't no whether he should come out or not. She was obviously braver that most; but still, if she saw him would if the same thing happened to her that happened to the rest?

“ What is your name?” Gargantua called out.

“ Delilah,” She answered. “And yours?”

“Gargantua.” He answered.

“ That's an interesting name. How did you get it?”

“ I don't know. I've had it every since I can remember.”

“don't you have any parents?”

“Not that I know of.”

“ Oh. I'm sorry. Won't you come out now?”

“ I'm afraid that you might go rigid like the rest.”

“ I don't think I will. I've studying giants long and hard, and I know what to expect. And as you can hear, I've learned giant also. I think the few people that came, died at the shock of seeing you up close. The rest of the people didn't die when you came because they didn't see the full immensity of you. But I'm prepared. I know what to expect.”

“ Well alright then.”

So Gargantua climbed out of the cave. Delilah merely winced when she saw him. Gargantua was so happy he started jumping up and down and of course shook the earth beneath him. And Delilah fell over, and laughed. Delilah told Gargantua her plans to educate the rest about giants, so they could be prepared, and then see that Gargantua, and most giants, were very friendly.

“The problem is that they aren't going to be willing to listen to me. And I can't show them, because they won't be prepared. I can't make them learn giant because they won't comply.”

The two mulled it over until they decided that Gargantua would learn English. They perfected a plan and put it to action.

Back at the town Delilah made an announcement that a very special and sweet visitor was coming. She told them that they needed to brace themselves however, because he was a bit different. She told them all to gather in the town square, sit down on the ground facing away from the mountains, and meditate for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, Gargantua was walking toward the town, taking time to walk carefully and quietly, and remembering what Delilah had taught him about how to make his expression look less angry and scary. He stopped about a foot away from the town, pulled out a mirror, and studied his face. He arranged his features accordingly, and then looked to see if Delilah knew he was there yet. She knew, and she was telling people to stand up now and start to turn around. Gargantua got ready, arranged his face once more and, careful to be quieter than his usual, called out in English: “ Hello!”

Everyone gasped. But guess what. They were still alive. They were frightened; but alive nevertheless. They stood where they were for a very long time. And so did Gargantua, because he was scared too. He was scared of killing yet another person. He remembered what Delilah had told him, and he sat down. Finally, one little boy timidly walked forward. Gargantua pulled out his mirror, arranged his face into a smile, and then put it away. The boy walked closer, and approached the giant. He put out his hand, and touched the giants face. Gargantua held still as instructed by Delilah. The people timidly laughed. Finally, the rest of them came forward also.

Gargantua continued to live in the mountains because he was too big to live in the town. But he was visited frequently by the townsman. Delilah lived with him, and they both lived happily every after.