Remains of a Promise

"Who was that?" Gweneth asked, her eyes soft with sorrow, as she beheld the huge skeleton beside the path.

"His name was Hornell," Melisande replied. "They say that spirits linger here, to trouble travellers who tarry." Gweneth could tell her friend wanted to get away from the spot, but their path led past the giant, who had fallen there, in his rusted armour.

"There's saddness about him," she said. "Why doesn't the King have him buried?" Her hand touched the steel of his vambrace, and a feeling of loss ran through her.

"He's a warning to any other giant who might come," Melisande said. She looked back, past the milestone, then at the setting sun. They had time before night fell and the gates closed, but not not long enough to dally on the path. "Really, we shouldn't stay here."

"Don't you feel how lonely he is?" Gweneth said. "Unburied. Far from his family and kind." Melisande could see compassion in the other girls face, though she could not understand it.

"Hornell was a monster," she said. "He would have killed the king, and held the kingdom captive."

"If he was the King's unfriend, perhaps the King made him so."