giantess x healer short story

	"Hold still."

	"I said I'm fine, tend to yourself first."

	"You're not fine, and I'm not fine. But if you're not fine, we're both going to die."

	Sigrun sighed sharply, conceding the point. Out of the corner of his eye, Wyn could see her huge arms cross poutily over her chest, and even from the ground, the force of her warm breath ruffled his hair. Nonetheless, she straightened her legs out so he could reach them while she sat. Hiking up his long robes, he grabbed the end of her sturdy fur skirt, and tried to swing up onto her thigh. Normally a simple maneuver, he only got three quarters of the way there this time -- fatigue and pain from his wounds holding him back. He'd just begin to slide backwards across her slick, sweaty skin when a giant finger gently pushed him up the rest of the way.

	"You're welcome," came the sarcastic voice from above.

	"Thanks," Wyn replied earnestly. He was used to Sigrun's odd displays of affection. At least, he thought it was affection. It certainly felt different than when the rest of the party teased him. And he liked to think she was protective of him for reasons other than her own health.

	It took Wyn a moment to get his bearings. Sigrun's leg was covered in dirt, sweat, and small cuts and bruises -- long hours of navigating this wretched cave complex had not been kind on the giant woman. His hand went to the huge gash the ran up from her knee and and right underneath her skirt. He'd seen it delivered by the dire wolves they'd fought at the entrance, and it was why he'd decided to start with her leg.

	Straddling the cut, he pushed the skin together with his legs, and channeled healing magic with both hands. Chords of muscle flexed under him, and he heard Sigrun grit her teeth from the uncomfortable sensation, but he continued, as fast as his mouth could whisper the sacred words. Slowly, the rough suture climbed up her thigh along with him. Later he could heal the scarring, and give her pristine, new skin, but there was no time for that now.

	Wyn's manic work was interrupted by booming laughter. "My, my, someone's eager," Sigrun said. In his haste he had dove right under her skirt without realizing. He didn't reply to her, for two reasons. Mainly because this was a very serious situation, and he wouldn't let Sigrun's obnoxiously casual indifference to danger distract him. But also because he really was attracted to her, and he was convinced that even if she liked him, she could never like him *that* way.

	Luckily, by the time he was done, the hints of embarrassment had faded from his face, and he was able to crawl out and stand before his giant companion with some confidence. From his unsteady vantage point on her thigh, her size seemed magnified by the dim torchlight and the close cave walls. But the way her blue eyes shined -- the shadows playing across her features -- made her as beautiful as ever. The dirt and the sweat and the messy blonde ponytail couldn't matter less.



	Noticing his pause, Sigrun decided to speak up. The longer she let him stare the more embarrassed he'd be afterwards. "Do I have permission to move, now?" she asked facetiously.

	Wyn startled a bit. "What? Uh... let me look at your other leg first."

	Instead of waiting for him to slide down, and then heave his weary body back up again, she just brought her hand over to him. He looked surprised, but climbed in without much fuss. Gently, she dumped him down on her other leg, and he got to work again.

	Although she'd been giving him a hard time, she really liked when it was just the two of them.  She didn't have to keep up the intimidating warrior woman appearance so much; she could be a bit sweeter, a bit more casual. They'd have to find their companions -- the scoundrel Leon and that snooty mage, Mortimer -- eventually, but for now she could just enjoy Wyn's company.

	She watched the tiny healer work with fascination. He was small and slight, even for a human, and his billowy clerical robes didn't quite fit right. Nevertheless, he maneuvered across her skin deftly, mending wounds every where he went. She'd never told him, but she actually thought Wyn was a very talented healer. She also thought the dark-haired young man was completely adorable, but she'd never told him that either.

	Relaxed as she was, Sigrun almost didn't notice the faint chittering sound, growing ever louder on the edges of her hearing. Whatever that was, it couldn't be good. Focusing on in on the sound, she could tell it was coming from all around, from multiple sources. And they were close.

	Instinctively, she reached for her hammer. She also reached for Wyn. His note of surprise was cut off as her hand engulfed him, holding him in a tender grip. Unfortunately, that left her torch still perched in an alcove on the cave wall. She wasn't going anywhere without it, and if she didn't move she would be surrounded. There were few places to hide Wyn among her crude fur clothes, and certainly none that would be safe for the frail human while she was fighting, or crawling through the caves. That left one solution, one that Wyn wasn't going to like.

	Quickly, she brought her hand up to her mouth, and popped him in before he could react. His pitiful struggles brought her pangs of guilt, but she swallowed him down anyway. He was so large it was almost painful, but soon enough she felt him plop down in her belly. Safe and sound. Or at least, as safe as he could be. Her stomach would try to kill him, too, but he could survive that for a while. He knew the proper wards, she'd seen him cast them before.

	Giving her exposed midriff a final, reassuring caress, Sigrun grabbed her torch and stood up. She set off down the tunnel, but as before, the tight space made it slow going. Up ahead she could just make out the first signs of the chittering adversaries -- spindly formian legs that emerging from the walls. Turning her axe over in her hand, she readied herself for the coming ichor bath.



	After landing in the wet, hot pit of Sigrun's stomach, Wyn found he was too stunned to do much more than sit up. Had he done something wrong? What was she thinking, eating him with no warning? The prospect of being digested was terrifying, as was the utter darkness and the clinging, claustrophobic humidity. But he had to trust Sigrun, so he took a few breaths to calm himself down.

	Whatever was going on outside, the giant woman wasn't resting anymore. Her movement was threatened to throw him from wall to wall, but the depression he made in the soft stomach lining helped stabilize him. As he got used to the ride, Wyn tried to recall the incantations he would need to stay safe in the stomach. A modified form of the water-breathing spell was most important, and after that, a ward against acid. He thought about making some light, too, but decided that the slimy details of Sigrun's gut were best left hidden.

	Once his wards were set, the stomach sauna became a bit more bearable for Wyn. The air he breathed now tasted clean and dry, and the acidic slime no longer itched his wounds. The enchantments were trivial for him to maintain, allowing him to concentrate elsewhere. He still had no clue what Sigrun was doing, but the even swaying motion seemed to him like walking, punctuated by quick flurries of movement.

	He thought about tending to his own injuries, but if there was even a tiny chance Sigrun was fighting out there, he wanted to support her. But how? He couldn't heal wounds he couldn't see, and the gurgling symphony of her innards provided no useful information. He could only take some solace that her heartbeat -- the warm pulse that echoed all around him -- remained strong and constant, albeit quite fast.

	With no plan in mind, Wyn did the only thing he could think to do. He put both hands down on the slick stomach flesh, he closed his eyes, he reached deep into that wellspring of holy energy within him, and he poured as much of it as he could right into Sigrun. It wasn't easy -- it felt like trying to lift a boulder off his chest, one that was so heavy he could barely budge it. But by going deeper into the trance, he could bear the strain. Time became meaningless; his exertion simply *was*.



	Somewhere in the tunnel system, Sigrun had taken a wrong turn. The passage grew smaller and smaller, until she could no longer travel it. She'd hacked through dozens of bugs to make it here, but hundreds more followed her. She was exhausted, and she had a fresh set of stinging bites along her arms and legs. She wasn't sure she could fight her way back out of this dead end.

	But then, just like that, energy rushed through her, like a shot of divine adrenaline. It took her by surprise, because she was certain it was only adrenaline that had got her this far, but she wasn't about to take it for granted. She was going to fight, and fight joyfully.

	Spinning on her heel, she strode back the way she'd come, ready to face the chittering horde.



	An hour of hectic bug-slaying found Sigrun clambering out of the lower level of tunnels, to a safer area, one they'd passed through before getting split up in the cave-in. She'd fought her way out, seemingly against the odds, and what was more, she felt great! Her wounds healed unbelievably fast, her muscles scarcely tired, and she felt completely alert. She was caught in a warm high spread that spread from her stomach out to her scalp and the tips of her fingers and toes.

	Sitting down against the cave wall, she was ready to relax and enjoy her victory. She'd just gotten comfortable when she remembered Wyn, the hapless passenger in her tummy. And it finally clicked. Everything happened for a reason -- no doubt he'd had a hand in her euphoric second wind. She knelt over to cough him up, but hesitated. Whatever he was doing in there, surely a little longer couldn't hurt? It felt too good to just stop now! But she immediately cursed herself for such selfish thinking. He was her friend, she needed to know if he was alright, and there was no reason he should spend more time in a place as unpleasant as her stomach.

	Plunging her fingers deep into her throat, Sigrun retched. An uncomfortable weight traveled up her chest, forcing Wyn out into her mouth. Carefully, she spit him out into her hand. It was worse than she feared -- he looked tired and disoriented, his skin was deathly pale, and he wore all the same wounds he had before. She cradled him gently, and tried rubbing some of the bile off him with her finger. It wasn't proper for a proud warrior like her to dote over some scrawny human, but that didn't matter to Sigrun anymore. She wanted to take care for her friend, more that anything else.

	Bringing him close to her face, she said, "Wyn? Wyn, speak to me! Are you alright?"

	He peeked his eyes open and looked up at her. "Sigrun? Why... why did you e-eat me?"

	"I was just trying to keep you safe, sweetheart."

	"Oh," he replied, with bemused matter-of-factness. He looked at her strangely when she called him affectionately. She realized she'd never called him -- or anyone else -- "sweetheart" before. But it felt perfectly natural.

	"Are we safe now?" he asked.

	"Yes, yes, we're safe now," she replied, "But I didn't think you'd be hurt like this. I'm sorry."

	"It's not your fault."

	"What?"

	"I... I was just doing my job," he said weakly, "Healing you. D-did I do well?"

	It was just too much. "Oh, goodness!" Sigrun squealed, pulling Wyn against her bosom in a crushing hug. No holding back this time. He was going to know just how much she appreciated him and his cuteness, and if that meant giving him a face-full of her sweaty mounds, so be it. "You did so well, I didn't want to let you out!"



	In his idle time, the dark corners of Wyn's mind had imagined what it would be like to be held against Sigrun's mighty breasts. He never thought he'd actually get to experience it, but he was glad he did. The reality was so much nicer that anything he could imagine -- better even than hearing her call him "sweetheart", and that had been joyfully surreal.

	He still didn't understand where they were or what had happened, and he couldn't hear what Sigrun was saying through all the smothering softness, but he didn't mind. He was more than happy to drift in and out of exhausted torpor while pinned to her lovely chest. Not even the sweat could bother him -- it was far less caustic than the saliva and stomach juice cocktail he was already covered in.

	Eventually, though, she did pull him away. Still cupping him in her hands, she brought him up to her face, and just examined him with a bashful look.

	"Now what?" he asked.

	"Well, I'm in no hurry to see Leon or Mortimer again, so I say we rest here for a while. With any luck, they'll find us."

	With that, she scooted into a lower position, and placed him down gently on the inward slope of her bosom. Though he desperately wanted to lay back into her soft skin and rest, burning curiosity kept him sitting up.

	"What happened after you swallowed me? Were you attacked?" he asked.

	"Yes, a whole swarm of giant ants. I could hear them coming, that's why I had to gulp you down so fast."

	"Did you fight them all?"

	"No, I fought through them, trying to get here, outside their territory. But I got lost at one point. I thought I wasn't going to make it, but then you did... whatever it was you did. It must've been you, and it was incredible. I felt like I could fight a whole army."

	"I didn't know how to heal you from in there, so I just gave you everything I had."

	Her features softened sympathetically, "Oh, it was hard, wasn't it?" she cooed, "Is that why you look so bad?"

	He wanted to downplay it, but he just couldn't lie to that face. "...Yes," he finally replied, "I'd do it again if you wanted, though."

	"I'd never make you do something like that again, honey."

	"If it really helps you fight, I should. That's what I'm here for."

	Sigrun sighed and shook her head, smiling, "Y'know, for someone who could fit in my palm, you sure do give a lot of orders. And for some reason I always listen."

	Wyn had never really considered that. She was right, of course. She was the only one who ever listened to him. And at her size, she had little reason to listen to any human, let alone a runt like him.

	"That's... that's because you're kind. Even though you like to hide it," he said meekly, then added even softer, as if ashamed, "It's why I wouldn't mind doing that again."

	Sigrun blushed, her smile grow wide and mischievous. "Well, Wyn, you're cute, and you couldn't hide it if you tried. Now come here, that deserves a kiss."

	Wyn had no time to react before she scooped him up and pressed him into her plush lips. Though he didn't think it was possible, the kiss felt better than the hug.