The Storm King

Once upon a time, there lived a giant who made his home beneath a hill. This giant was named Kade and spent most of his days whiling away his time, tending idly to the wild flowers and grasses and drawing water from the nearby stream. One day, Kade discovered an uninvited guest: an oaken sprout had sprung up atop the very crest of his hilly home. Kade’s hill was far from any forests, and the land in which this indomitable tree grew was almost entirely devoid of other trees. Kade carefully cupped his hands and filled them up with water, ferrying it up the hill and pouring it over the leafy sprout.

“You’re a brave one to grow in a place so far from your family,” he spoke kindly to the tree, “I shall call you Gilgamesh. It is the name of a great and mighty hero from a land far, far away.”

Days passed, then weeks, then years. Every day, Kade would bring water to Gilgamesh and speak with him atop the hill. Before long, Gilgamesh grew into a great and mighty oak. His branches grew broad and his leaves provided great shade over the entire hill. In summer, Kade found relief from the sun’s scorching rays beneath Gilgamesh’s leaves. In winters, Kade gathered up the shed leaves and fed his furnace beneath the hill, keeping the both of them warm.

One night, during a particularly dry summer, Kade could hear something stirring atop his hill. He crawled out of bed and climbed up to where Gilgamesh stood. No deer were grazing, nor were there any owls who had alighted on his branches. Instead, Kade looked up and saw a young girl shimmying her way into Gilgamesh’s canopy. Kade called out to her, but she did not seem to react. He could not see her face, for she craned her neck and gazed fixedly on the night sky. Kade looked out at the great black abyss and wondered at the stars. He had never bothered to look up at them before, but now they seemed to take all his attention away. Before he knew it, the sun began to rise, and the girl clambered down out of the tree.

“Oh, hello!” she spoke, noticing Kade for the first time. She rubbed her sore neck as she craned it once more to meet the giant’s eye, “My name is Haruka! What’s yours?”

“I am Kade, and this is Gilgamesh,” Kade gestured to the tree.

“Hello Gilgamesh,” Haruka said, placing her palm gently upon the tree’s trunk, “Thank you for keeping me safe overnight, you make a wonderful stargazing point!”

“Stargazing…” Kade’s voice trailed off.

“Have you never done it before? It’s my favorite passtime! I never grow tired of gazing up at the heavens and imagining what could go on up there, so very far away!”

Kade glanced up once more at the reddening sky, the brightest of stars now fading behind the ever-growing sunrise.

“I’ll come back tonight and I’ll teach you the names of each and every star that I know,” Haruka exclaimed as she hurried down the hill, “Once you get to know them, you’ll understand what I mean.”

Kade watched as Haruka’s small form disappeared in the distance, becoming indistinguishable from the blades of grass that blanketed the land. He patted Gilgamesh’s trunk, scooped up some water from the brook, spread it across Gilgamesh’s great roots, and yawned.

That girl kept me up all night, Kade thought, I suppose I should get some rest.

Kade rolled himself beneath the hill and shut his eyes. That night, Haruka returned, and Kade rose to meet her once more. Days passed, nights passed, and on nearly each and every one, Kade and Haruka gazed up into the night sky, admiring the glowing majesty of the cosmos.

Eventually, the days turned into months, and the months into years. More and more often, Kade found himself helping Haruka to climb up into the branches of Gilgamesh, something she was once more than capable of doing on her own. Kade was a giant, and he had lived for centuries before Gilgamesh was a seedling, much less the mighty oak he was today. Haruka was a human girl, and with that humanity came fragility and impermanence.

“I think I’ll stay here a while longer,” Haruka spoke one night, as she sat easily upon Gilgamesh’s canopy.

“Does your family not expect you back soon?” Kade replied.

Haruka chuckled, “I hardly believe they expect me back at all. You may not have noticed, but I’m not some young starry-eyed girl anymore, Kade. Look at me–my skin is wrinkled, my bones are fragile as dried twigs. I fear that if I climb down from here, I may never reach such a height again. Let me remain starry-eyed for just a little longer.”

Kade saw that there was nothing left for him to say, and so he turned in beneath his hilly home. As he slept, he had restless dreams. He watched helplessly as Haruka, her aged body slowly melting back into a spirit of youth, climbed not down from the lofty branches of the mighty Gilgamesh, but ascended through his uppermost boughs. Transforming from human girl into winged beast,she soared higher and higher until she disappeared among the stars to which she always gazed.

Kade slept all through the day, dreaming of staring up at the stars, looking in earnest for the friend who had ascended to become one of them. When at last he awoke, a whole day had passed, and the sun was rising once more. Hesitantly, he climbed atop his hill, only to find that Haruka had passed on.

Now that she was gone, Kade found himself returning to his old routine, tending idly to the wildlife around his hill. Still, he felt a weight upon his heart, as if he had lost something he could never get back. Tenderly did he fetch water from the nearby ford and sprinkle it upon Gilgamesh’s roots and even up upon his branches that Haruka might drink from it. When night fell, he would gaze upon the stars, only to find them blur together so that he could not distinguish them, though he remembered their names. He began to turn in earlier and earlier, but he never forgot the names of the stars.

One night, Kade was awoken by a mighty crack of thunder. Quickly, he clambered out from beneath his hill to find the grasses laid flat by the wind and rain. The trees of the distant forest bent beneath the galeforce, their myriad leaves grabbing the wind like sails of a ship. Gilgamesh stood strong against the gusts, but even he was beginning to groan against the endless assault.

As lightning flashed and thunder cracked, Kade could hear the trees in the distant forest begin to submit to the onslaught. One by one, they fell, their strong roots tearing up the earth and their stalwart trunks snapping at the waist. Even the mighty Gilgamesh began to give way. In a fit of passion, Kade braced his own body against the mighty oak. The wind pushed at him, the rain pelted him, and the thunder roared at him, but he pushed and pelted and roared back.

The darkened clouds obscured the stars in the sky, but Kade called out the names of each and every one as he held fast to Gilgamesh and fought against the storm. One by one he named them, until eventually he could name no more, and so he called out the name of the latest and greatest star he had ever known. With her name, he had squeezed out the last of his strength, and slumped down against Gilgamesh’s trunk.

When at last the storm had abated and the sun began to rise, piercing through the clouds, one oak tree stood tall upon the hill. From its lofty branches, a pair of great eagles took flight.