You don't to tell me that I'm insane. I mean, for Shrak's sake, I actually might be. I came up with this plan maybe five minutes after I heard the rumors. My dear old dad's jaw just dropped when I ran the idea by him. 

So, who am I, what's this rumor, and how does it relate to my arguable sanity? Well, first off, my name's Jastro. I'm the first-born son of Baron Uljik and I live in the city of Krethnar nestled in the Stonespine Mountains. I'm 24, been prepping to take over the family business since I could walk and talk. We use mind controlled girls from other races to work our plantation, both in the fields and as maids. After they get branded, they'd eat out of the palm of your hand if you told em to. We're expanding to not just supply fungi and wheat, but wine as well. It's gonna take a while but we're making good headway on the brewery and the vineyard. 

As for the rumor, word is that there's young giantess living by herself in a valley east of Krethnar. Now, that's not too weird in and of itself. The part about giants being in the area. There's a tribe of em in the southern part of the mountain range, the Cliff Smashers. They don't look too kindly on outsiders and if you know what's good for you, you'll be quick with whatever needs doing in their territory. That includes goblins. A few years back we actually sent some envoys to see if they were interested in sacking this human castle near Sapphire Lake. Now, we can't be entirely sure those green smears we found were them, but I think the evidence is quite compelling. Point is, they like sticking to themselves.

A female giant living on her own though, that's unusual. She's quite a ways from where her people usually make camp. When they go hunting or raiding, they usually travel in groups. So she's either left her home village of her own free will or she's been exiled. Personally, I'm a bit more worried if she was kicked out. Exile is the second worst punishment in giant society. Take a guess as to what's number one. She had to do something bad in order to get kicked out and I mean bad. Either way, she's been heard crying in the early evening and if the sound's any indication she's gotta be late teens-early twenties. The crying was supposed to be first heard a week and a half ago, so there's a good chance she's still in the area.

Now then, you can probably guess what my plan is and why everyone seems to think brain damage was somehow involved in me coming up with it. My dad was silent for about five minutes when I told him my idea and then he fell over laughing. When he got back up he gave me one chance to convince him that this wasn't gonna be a disaster waiting to happen. I gathered myself, took a deep breath and told him to think of our family's position. I told him to think about how much of our prestige came not just from our wealth and properties but our slave girls. The more exotic and talented they were, the better. I went over how long it was expected to take before the brewery was up and running. I told him how much quicker things would go if we had a giantess under our control. She could be used for more than just building the brewery, she could carry barrels and do all sort of heavy lifting. She could make an amazing guard as well.

I told my old man that if we got her squishing grapes for the winery, we could sell the bottles for more than the standard price. I know for a fact that people'll shell out more than a few extra gold coins if the wine they were drinking was made by a giantess's feet crushing the grapes. One of the young noblemen I hung out with as a kid looks at a slave girl's feet really closely before he considers buying them. Quite a few noblemen factor feet into whether or not they're gonna buy a slave girl now that I think of it. The giantess could be a laborer, guard and sex slave all in one. She'd have all these potential uses and we wouldn't have the pay the slaver guilds one bit in order to get her. 

He had me escorted out of his study and brought in the rest of the family to talk with them. I waited in the library with Abigail, one of the maids. Nearly four hours later I was called back in and my dad told me that he'd let me carry out my plan but demanded I agree to a few conditions before I left. First, I'd be paying for what was needed to house our big new thrall if I succeeded in capturing her. If she was saving us enough money by helping with construction or even turning a profit with her work, that would end. Secondly, I'd be putting together this little excursion on my own. The guys, the gear, the intel, you get the idea. I didn't have a problem with that but I didn't want to wait too long. She could leave the valley at any time. 

I put together a crew of six goblins, with two of them being mages. We had to make an extra powerful batch of the enchanting powder we usually use on human and orc women. Once we got her branded we'd be golden, but we couldn't take the branding stone with us. If we lost it, replacing it would cost a fortune and the money would be coming from my account. No thank you. 

We've been our here for three days now, resting when the sun is out and heading in the direction of the sobs when we hear them. She's definitely in the valley. We've run into broken trees, seen carcasses of livestock with huge chunks taken out of them and we found the remains of campfires.

We've been getting closer and closer to the source of the sobbing each day, and now we know exactly where she is. Our group made its way to a waterfall just when it was starting to get dark out and we can see a large humanoid female beating a bedroll. We can't get a good look at her from where we're standing but I don't think she sees us yet.

Then Baaz steps on a stick, makes a loud cracking sound and she freezes. Shit.

"Who's there?!" she shouts with a thundering voice. She sounds mad but there's something else there too. Fear. That makes her just as dangerous than she'd be if she was pissed.

"Come out!" she shouts. I look to my boys and silently nod. Best that she not come in chasing after us.

"Alright!" I yelled. "Give us a sec!" We left the cover of the trees one by one, making sure not to move too quickly.

She looked like a human, with long brown hair in dreadlocks that looked like thick ropes, shining green eyes and a fair bit of grime on her face. Her skin has a bronze tone to it, so I'm guessing she's had a lot of exposure to the sun. She's got a top made out of tanned leather, a studded metal skirt on her waist and leather sandals. Her midriff was exposed, revealing glistening abs. In her hand I could see one of two throwing axes that's probably enough to cut down a tree. As much as I try not to, I keep finding myself looking at her breasts. I didn't know just how well endowed giantesses could be, but she wasn't bad herself. Her eyes narrowed.

"What do goblins want?" she asked.

"Nothing, miss...I'm sorry what's your name?"

"Hegra." she says coldly. I nodded and smiled.

"Good. I like the sound of that name. Strong name. Strong like you." She glowered at us and put away her axe, walking across the stream. I had my hand in the pocket where the charming powder was. 

I just needed for her to get a bit closer...