Miles pretended to be a mountain goat, jumping from rock to rock up a tall hill. Beyond a valley was another tall hill. Together the hills were called the Granite Twins. Ahead of him, a rock slide started, and Miles took cover behind a ledge of granite. Big rocks bounced by, but none reached him. Suddenly, the earth trembled. The tall twin across from him seemed to wobble, and then another landslide of even bigger rocks started across the valley. Miles started to hear voices.
“Get your elbow out of my ear!” the voice sounded like a knife screeching across rock. A deeper voice shouted: “Your knee has been in my back for a thousand years!” A fissure appeared in the valley below, and red lava hissed out of it. Clouds of sparks rose into the air from the lava. Before Miles’s amazed eyes, clouds of sparks swirled through the air, changing leaves into crystals and sparrows into cows.
The ledge Miles was sheltering behind started to rise up in the air. He was standing on the shoulder of a giant! A cloud of sparks drifted over him, and he felt a burning, stretching feeling. He opened his mouth to yell out, but he heard the scream of an eagle. He moved his arms, and flew high up over the hills.
His eagle eye saw the twin hills trembling in earthquakes, with lava churning and trees falling like flowers. He needed to stop them or the disturbance might harm someone. What could he do?
“You were always mom’s favorite!” the first voice screamed. The second deeper voice returned: “That’s silly! The rain falls on both of us equally, and the sun shines as many days on you!”
Miles flew past the giant’s heads, screaming out an eagle challenge. Their slow, clumsy hands turned to swat him away, but he was too quick and graceful in his eagle form. Miles noticed the earthquakes start to subside, and the lava fissure closing up. He continued to fly around the giant’s heads, screaming, like an annoying mosquito to the twins. They teamed up, and tried to catch him, but he rose up high in the air where they could not reach him. He was aided by the wind, which lifted him in clean-smelling gusts.
“I’m tired!” the first voice screamed. “Me, too!” the deeper voice agreed. Slowly, both settled back into tall hills. Miles landed back on the ledge of granite just in time. As the fissure closed, the clouds of sparks disappeared. The crystals turned back into leaves, the cows turned back into sparrows, and Miles turned back into a boy. Miles ran as fast as his legs would carry him back to his family and friends who were all talking about the earthquake.
“Did you feel it, Miles?” Miles didn’t even know how to begin answering them.
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
17 thoughts on “The Giant Argument”
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Friendly Fairy Tales 
Oh, how lovely Brenda! 🙂 This made me smile! 🙂 Yes, it did remind me a lot of that rock-troll I sent you a picture of! 🙂 You would find Norway so inspiring! Have you read any Norwegian folk tales? You should! You would love them I think! 🙂
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Can you recommend a good English translation? I can’t read the original, sadly. 🙂 I have a gift card from Amazon for my birthday though….
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I have not read any of the translated ones. But I have seen one for sale many places. I will send the link by mail. But if you want to wait, then I can send you one from Norway when I go there, I mean of course in English, I might find a better one in Norway for you 🙂 But I think I am not going there until July-August. 🙂
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I ordered the one from the link. I will happily read another if you find a better one. I would so love to visit Norway one day. 🙂 It looks harsh but beautiful in the stark mountain landscapes. Perhaps one day… 🙂 Hugs, Brenda
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I will send you another one as well from Norway, one with pictures in it, so you can read it for your daughter 🙂 I had anyways plan to send you such a book from Norway. Maybe the card I sent from India got lost, Indian post is not so reliable, so I will send from Norway instead 🙂 You should visit Norway, but you must only visit when I am there! 🙂 🙂 🙂 I have to be there to show you around! 🙂 and I MUST meet you! 🙂 🙂
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I never got a card. Perhaps it is just delayed. I will let you know if one comes. One day, I hope we meet. It would be so fun to finally meet. My kids and I like to hunt for secret doors, and go for long walks in the woods, pretending to be mountain goats. We have such fun. I would like to take the kids to Europe in a few years. I’m working hard to sell books so we can make a little extra money for plane fare. I must get back to work! 🙂 Cheers, Brenda
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How lovely! About a month ago we had a rather small 4.5 in Athens. I woke up by it, seeing in my dream that a giant had me by the leg and shaking me! It was so vivid I couldn’t go back to sleep. And now I read this!
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🙂 I’m glad the only damage was to your sleep! That fits so well with my story!
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Oh I must get my kids to read you! This is amazing! My lucky day today…
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I hope your kids like my stories. Mine do, but of course they are biased. 🙂
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They’d love them. I know it 🙂
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A different version of Oz or Through the Looking Glass… Did Miles bump his head?
A delightful tale. Yes I like how nature spoke and the boy could not.
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Thanks… Poor Miles, no one will ever believe him. 🙂
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Wonderful imagery. I think the mountains, rocks and inanimate objects speaking were outstanding, unpredictable and made it interesting. This adventure making the boy shriek and rise up as an eagle was a treat!
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Thanks! I love in this one that nature speaks and the boy doesn’t. No idea why, but it was something I was toying with.
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Nice ending!
Elephant
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Thanks! I love Miles in eagle and boy form. Even though he never says a word.
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