Release me. Now. Or I break your goddamn neck, and I do not break my back for such as you." Huge as he was, the giant was terrified at the prospect of battle, for he was not, perhaps, the warrior he pretended. I broke him off another hunk of ham. "But let us hear the tale of your travels, then. And not only your deeds, but what you learned on your way to this place." This time, it was the giant who fell to his knees in a mock gesture of reverence. "You honor me, my good Lord. You honor me. I will tell you all of the tale." The giant's accent was thick, and I struggled to understand him. I have many men in the employ of the city's prince, and he has hired out to me as well. I understood well enough, after a fashion. The giant told me all of the tale as we ate, and it was a long story, full of strange places and strange people, of marvels that struck fear in my soul. It wasn't just the giant that sounded strange. The whole world seemed strange. So strange. Even the giant seemed strange to me. His whole massive person seemed odd and alien, as if he had been sculpted from the flesh of a particularly ugly giant, but then he began to tell me all the things that had happened to him. He even brought with him samples of food that he had prepared for himself on his many journeys: little balls of rice wrapped in banana leaves, and even fruits that I have not seen since the days of my childhood. "I have discovered all of the wonders of the world, my good Lord." "There was a time, my friend, when I imagined I might have to go to so great a distance, but never once would I have imagined, no, not for one second, that I would find people who are still living like savages in their native jungle." "You are a learned man, my Lord," the giant said, "with a wise, intelligent manner. And I am very grateful to have met you." It was only after the giant had eaten his fill and we had drunk a whole pot of cider that I noticed how tired he was, and how heavily he leaned against me. "My friend," I said. "I must carry you home." He looked up at me, slowly and carefully, and a smile broke over his face. "No, my good Lord, not until you have eaten my share. I insist, and I am a generous man. There must be some compensation for all that I have told you, my good Lord." He was still a very big man, but clearly, the giant had reached his limit. His eyes were beginning to close and his head fell limply on my shoulder. "I have to take you home, my friend, and with any luck you won't wake up for two days and then you'll ask for a story as long as the one you just finished telling me. I am afraid that is all I can offer you." The giant relaxed his head into my shoulder, and I carried him back to the house and sat him in one of the chairs. Then I returned to the kitchen and brought out the last of the ham and fried it. The giant thanked me for what he called my "hospitality," and I gave him a little of the apple cider, which made him very merry indeed. "One day," he said, "I will come to pay you a visit." "Then I will be ready," I said. His eyes closed. So I left the house and went on to other business, and it was not until the next day that I realized I hadn't told him where I lived. Or had it been that he had not asked me? It had been a very deep sleep for the giant, and he hadn't moved much when I came into the house and lifted him gently to his feet and carried him out the back door and into the cool mountain air. It was the same. The same trees and the same silence. The same cool, moist air that seemed to flow around us, as if it could not find its way back into the mountains and the sky. And the giant? He slept, and it seemed like no more than two days had passed, but when I returned, he was sitting up, his eyes wide open, his ears flapping about on his head, and he was asking me a question. "Who are you, my good Lord?" he said. "I am your friend, the blacksmith," I said. "You are, indeed," he said. "The last thing I remember clearly, my friend, is the taste of that ham you prepared for me." "Why didn't you wake up?" "What happens if you stay in one place too long, my friend?" "I will show you," I said, and I began to lead him toward the blacksmith's house. "You are a learned man, my Lord, and you have a great understanding of the universe." "There was a time when I thought I might need to go very far, but never once would I have imagined, no, not for one second, that I would find people still living like savages in their own jungle." "I don't have any land in your little kingdom, Lord Jug," he said. "You do own a huge mine. I have to go all the way across the jungle to the mine and back, and I know the way very well. It would be much faster if you would take me there by way of the mine. Will you do that, Lord Jug? Will you take me there?" "It is a very long way, and the sun is beginning to warm up. But since you are a man of your word, my friend, I will take you to the mine as quickly as I can." "You are a true gentleman, my Lord." He was delighted with this turn of events, and he went down on one knee in front of me, and I lifted him up and we continued walking. The giant was delighted at how little it took to make me his friend, delighted at all that he had been through to arrive at this point, and delighted that he still believed he had friends in the world. I liked him. I had seen nothing but kindness, charity and goodwill from him, and this, more than anything else, pleased me. What's more, the giant knew enough of the ways of the world to know when I was paying him a compliment. "You are a clever and a wise man, my good Lord." There was enough truth in it that I couldn't help but agree. "A man of great understanding and of great integrity." "You are a true gentleman, my Lord, and you have the soul of a scholar, and the heart of a prince." I loved him. "And you are quite certain," I said, "that this town you are in is of the country of the savages?" "You are going to be interested in this part of the journey, my Lord." "I am." "We have only been here a few hours, and it is already a wonder of the world." I didn't understand then why the giant would be so sure. "I have discovered all of the wonders of the world, my good Lord." So now it is a matter of getting to the mine before the summer ends, my friend. If I don't, I don't have a chance at all. Why did it suddenly dawn on me? It was the thought that he would find no one else here. There was no one else. No one. I began to get a great sense of relief when the giant showed me the path to the mine, and of a great joy at the thought of living for another day, and even a great joy when we made it to the place of the mine. But it was nothing compared to the joy of meeting Jug again. I had almost given up hope of seeing him again. But there he was. And he was happy. He was happy because he had found a home. He had found it. We walked down a corridor of huge steel tubes that had been sunk into the stone of the mountainside. This shaft went down into the earth almost a hundred meters and we walked for an hour before we came to the first place where the tubes ended, and I was afraid that I might not be able to get him out. But I did, and I began to make other arrangements. I began to ask questions. And I waited. And when he was ready to tell me, I gave my attention to the next bit of the story. You'll be fascinated by what he told me, my Lord, of this little town and the mine. He called it the kingdom of the cavemen, and we were not the first ones there. There were hundreds of people living there in the stone houses, and they were savages. In the very deepest part of the caverns, they lived in