Chapter 1

Helia was a slayer. She came from a long line of slayers in her family, but presently she was the only one in the trade. Her father had grown too old and had been injured too many times by the profession to continue so she had taken up the mantle. Though her mother had not been pleased with her choice of vocation, due to its dangerous, wandering nature, her father had supported her decision and even seemed prideful that she'd followed in his footsteps.

Helia was the eldest daughter in a family with no sons. She had thick, long, wavy red hair that flashed like copper penny in the sun and striking blue eyes to compliment. Standing at five-foot eleven, she was tall for her gender with a fit, muscled body; a must in her profession of killing monsters. She had a classic beauty in her features but did nothing to flaunt it. Makeup and other frivolities were unknown to her. Women in the position of slayer were unheard of, but Helia had a killer's edge and huntress's instinct that would've impressed the goddess of the hunt herself.

Despite only being twenty-five she had slain a number of monsters: werebeasts of many varieties, huge, horse-sized spiders, cannibalistic giants, deadly, fast harpies, and packs of bloodthirsty trolls to name a few. In her seaside home of Tegath she had earned quite the name for herself, but unfortunately she'd helped to slay most of the monsters of her country and subsequently run herself out of work. So, she had to travel to find work. Her travels had taken her north to a vast kingdom, one thrice the size of Tegath, known as Rumstead.

When she arrived, she'd talked to a few locals and soldiers about her trade and what jobs she would be able to find. Many laughed at her, shaking their heads, balking at the very idea a woman could be a slayer. However, the more observant noted the numerous troll tusks adorning her belt, the coarse, shaggy werebeast furs that lined her boots and shoulder pads, or even that two of her blades were made from the nearly indestructible fangs of a giant queen spider. Those who spotted these had no doubt of her success in the trade and began to tell stories.

One beast was named many times over, the Gray Shadow, the Giant of the North Woods. Helia listened to their stories, taking them with a grain of salt since people tended to embellish and inflate monsters to a point that fact and fiction were indistinguishable from one another.

"They call him the 'Gray Shadow' because you never hear him coming and his shadow is the last thing you ever see."

"He stands one hundred feet high!" They would say.

"He can stomp a mountain flat as a field!" Others would conjecture.

"He can swallow ten men whole!"

Ominous warnings!

All Helia could gather for certain was that there was a giant in the forest to the north that ate humans and it needed to be slain. She'd killed three giants back in Tegath and she'd heard similar stories of their enormity and power. However, they were far from what the stories purported. A hundred feet ended up being fifteen or twenty. Luckily, they were brutish and not very smart which made outwitting them relatively easy.

Giants were not easy to kill though, they could take devastating wounds and still have the strength to tear a person in half like a piece of paper. Their strength, while often exaggerated to god-like status, could not to be taken lightly. She'd once witnessed a man get his head popped off like a doll by a giant that was all but disemboweled.

Many slayers took on giants in large groups and used ropes and crossbows, but Helia's preferred method had been to sever their Achilles tendons with her sword, drop them to their knees, and then slash open their thick throats for a quick kill. It worked each giant she'd killed, and she knew it would work for this Gray Shadow.

Before long, her interest in the job had earned her an audience with the king of Rumstead. Given his amused expression during her proposal, he pretty much discredited her ability to kill the giant. But her stolid confidence had brought forth an offer: Kill the giant and half the kingdom, plus five chests filled with gold would be hers. The price was astronomical. Rumstead was the largest and one of the most prosperous kingdoms known and even owning half of it would make her the richest woman in history. But Helia suspected the bounty was made so rich because the king and the others didn't believe for a second that a mere woman could slay such a legendary beast. She intended to prove them wrong and silence their derisive laughter.

After gathering her needed supplies and receiving the necessary information on the giant's alleged home range, Helia was off to complete her job. It would take her almost four days to reach the giant's dwelling by horse, though many said merely trespassing in the North Woods would be enough to bring him to her.

The North Woods were a vast swath of untouched forest with towering trees and pristine wilderness. It was said that rare, valuable creatures and natural treasures were cached away in the forest and its mountains. None but the greediest and bravest dared to try and take these riches for fear of the Gray Shadow. Anyone who went into the North Woods never returned alive.

As Helia approached the forest, many signs warned of doom and death ahead. Helia ignored them all, vowing to rid the need for such signs.

Her first two days of travel were uneventful and she got far without so much as seeing a single person. It was the third day when that changed. Helia had finished her lunch and had ridden into midday when she heard a woman's voice somewhere nearby. She sounded in distress. Normally Helia only focused on her job but she was indeed curious as to whom it might be considering she hadn't seen any humans since the start of this trip. She turned her horse and directed it toward the sound. As she rounded a few trees the sound of tree branches rustling made her look up.

Her eyes went wide. There, hanging like a fly wrapped in a spider's webbing, was a mint green-skinned...something...entangled in a gnarly looking net at least twenty feet off the ground. Helia blinked, not believing what she was seeing. Her skin color was indeed strange but she also had large transparent wings sprouting from her back that looked like a cross between a dragonfly and a butterfly. Helia almost thought "fairy" but she wasn't tiny, she was human-sized.