Surrender, Lilliput

Chapter 2: Forge of Lilliput

Chapter 2:

While Iota made his way back to the giant cave where Galatcha resided, the Count explained the logistics of having the giantess in Lilliput to the king.

"That giantess may be of use to us, your majesty, but if she turns on us, we need to be prepared. There are many fields of hemlock groves, we need to have some of that hemlock put in barrels so the archers can tip their arrows in it, in case we need to kill her."

"That sounds like a good plan, Count Champurrado! You are thinking ahead, and I like that!"

"You do realize that we are going to have to feed her, don't you?" the Count asked the king. "Despite her young age, she can eat as much as an army in one meal."

"Do you have any suggestions?" the king asked.

"I suggest you put her to work, to earn her keep!" said the Count.

"What type of work would you suggest?' the king asked.

"We've needed a canal to bring water from the highlands to the more populated regions for some time now. She is large enough and strong enough to get the job done in a matter of months. It would take our workers years to accomplish the same task!"

"My plan was to have her take on the Blefuscan armada, and utterly crush them!" said the king.

"She could do that first, your majesty. Then she could get to work on the canal. We would need metal workers to forge a large shovel for the giantess to use, it would be a momentous undertaking."

"Do we have enough metal to make such a shovel?" the king asked.

"We could take donations from everyone in the kingdom. You could issue a tax declaration that everyone must donate their bodyweight in copper. The giantess herself could help us dig the sand mold, and we have enough metal workers to melt the copper and work the metal."

"I'll put you in charge of this operation, Count Champurrado!"

"It will be done according to your will, your majesty!" said the Count as he bowed. "There is one more matter concerning the giantess we must discuss."

"And what is that?" the king asked.

"We need to get as much syrup of Ipecac as we can, and put it in barrels. It is an expectorant, if the giantess swallows someone of importance, we can have her drink the Ipecac syrup to vomit them up!"

"Do we have enough Ipecac to accomplish this?" the king asked.

"I have spoken to a farmer, and according to him, we have more than enough, it's just a matter of getting it into barrels that will be the most laborious aspect of the job."

"I will have my men do this immediately!" said the king. "In the meantime, get that giant shovel constructed."

Count Champurrado bowed to the king and said, "So as it is written, so let it be done!"

Meanwhile, back in the cave, Galatcha was setting up her belongings and getting accustomed to her new home. She had her blankets in the rear of the cave, away from the mouth of the cave. On the stone table she had set up, she had a towel as a table cloth, and a drinking vessel and utensils for eating. Her ceramic water jugs were set to the right of the table. Her spare clothing was folded and set on top of her knapsacks, which were neatly set at the head of where her blankets were, to be used as a pillow.

Iota arrived, out of breath.

"Iota, I didn't expect you back so soon!" said Galatcha.

"The king seeks an audience with you at once! You must take me to the royal palace!"

Galatcha scooped Iota up and carried him. She followed his directions and made her way to the capitol city of Lilliput. Once she reached the outskirts of the city, Galatcha's immense mass crushed the cobblestoned streets, leaving indentations.

"I hope I'm not causing too much damage!" said Galatcha.

When she reached the front of the palace, several dozen archers took aim at her, in case she tried to attack. The king was summoned, and he came out and told the archers to lower their weapons. The king then spoke to the giantess.

"My farmers and bakers will provide you with food while you're here, but you must work for us."

The king spoke to her about the canal she would need to build, and asked her if she had any cutting implements she had brought with her from her homeland. Galatcha indicated that she had a knife, and the king explained that she would need to dig a mold with her knife so his metal workers could pour molten metal in the shape of a shovel that she could use. The king explained that it would take Galatcha several months to dig the canal.

Galatcha agreed to dig the canal. She told the king that she would immediately retrieve her knife from the giant cave to dig the mold for the shovel. While Galatcha returned to the cave, the workers began preparing the syrup of Ipecac as Count Champurrado had suggested.

The barrel workers had some empty barrels already constructed, but put in double time building more. A barrel half the height of a Lilliputian would only seem to be a quarter of an inch tall from Galatcha's perspective, so it would take dozens of them filled with Ipecac syrup to function as an expectorant for such a large girl.

Count Champurrado oversaw the operation, while simultaneously making sure the metal workers were gathering the copper needed for such a huge shovel. Tax collectors went door to door collecting copper, and put the collected metal in wagons hauled by horses.

The Count got the kingdom's most revered engineer, and had him scout out a piece of land on the perimeter of the royal city, to be used as a mold. Dozens of workers using digging tools marked off the areas that needed to be dug by the giantess, and they got to work. Within an hour, they had the critical areas marked where they needed Galatcha to dig.

Staffs were buried with flags tied to their tops, so the giant girl would know where to use her knife. For the men of Lilliput, it would have taken many days to dig the mold for the shovel, but because Galatcha was so huge, she would be able to do it in one afternoon.

By the time the posts were in where they wanted Galatcha to dig, she had reached the cave again. The young giantess retrieved the dagger they had told her to get, and returned to the royal palace. There, the king appointed someone to show her where the digging site was located. She carried the tiny man in the palm of her hand, and he directed her where to go.

When she arrived at the site, Galatcha was amazed at how industrious the Lilliputians were. They were already getting the furnaces set up to melt the copper that would be poured into the mold. There were hundreds of horse drawn carts full of copper. Count Champurrado explained where he wanted Galatcha to dig, and she got the job done within an hour.

When she was done, she watched as the workers got to the edge of the pit she had dug and got ready to pour the molten copper. When the foreman was ready, they all poured simultaneously, from every side of the mold. When the copper was poured, they stepped back to let it cool off. Dozens of workers had files they could use on the shovel, to cut off the excess that wasn't needed.

Count Champurrado urged Galatcha to pick him up and carry him back to the palace. Galatcha did as she was told, and soon they were in front of the palace. The cobblestones were crushed further into the ground than they had been before she had first arrived.

Someone summoned the king, and he came out to address Galatcha.

"I'm so sorry for the damage to your streets!" said Galatcha. "They weren't designed for someone my size!"

"Don't concern yourself with the damage to the streets, young giantess!" the king replied. "We have more pressing matters to deal with."

"Do you need my help with something, your majesty?" Galatcha asked.

"Yes," the king replied, "we need you to help us defeat the armada of the Blefuscans. We had a giant named Gulliver who attacked them about five years ago, but he left and never returned. During the interim, the Blefuscans have built an armada 300 ships strong!"

"What do you need from me?" Galatcha asked.

"Tomorrow at dawn, we will send a courier to awaken you. I want you to go out into the harbor and attack the Blefuscan fleet. Do you have any netting at all?"

"I have a net I brought with me from Brobdingnag, your majesty."

"Bring it with you when you attack the Blefuscans. I want you to retrieve their ships, and carry them with you back to Lilliput. We need to analyze their ship designs. When you bring the ships, carry them to high ground, so they won't have access to the Ocean."

"I'll gladly do that, your majesty!" said Galatcha. "But I have a favor to ask you. There is a device known as an Icosahedron. A scientist in Brobdingnag has one on my scale, and he asked me to retrieve the Icosahedron that a scientist here possesses and return with it to Brobdingnag."

"I will seek out the scientist who has such a device and give it to you if you do the things we ask of you. In the meantime, return to your cave, and I will send a thousand men with barrels and baskets of food for you. You need your rest if you are going to attack the Blefuscan fleet tomorrow at dawn!"

Galatcha thanked the king, and departed. About an hour after she returned to her cave, the workers arrived with the food the king had promised.

When she was done eating her dinner, Iota arrived. Galatcha scooped him up and set him on the table she had fashioned from stone, that was adorned with a towel for a table cloth.

"How do you like working for the king?" Iota asked.

Galatcha answered as she retrieved the netting she had promised the king she would use tomorrow. "I'm glad to help, but I never thought I'd be taking orders here, I thought I would be giving them. See the net I'm going to use?"

"Yes," Iota replied, "but you'd better get the idea of giving orders around here out of your head. A thousand archers with poison tipped arrows could easily kill you if they wanted to. You may be huge, but you're not indestructible. Even now, hundreds of barrels are being filled with hemlock in case you rebel. I could be killed if they find out I warned you!"

"Thanks for the warning," Galatcha replied. "I just want to collect some captives and return to my homeland. But I have to wait for the arrival of the summer solstice before I can return home. But don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

Galatcha gathered all of the barrels and baskets her food had come in and set them by the mouth of the cave.

"They sent me a lot of food, but still, by my standards, it wasn't a very big meal. I hope I don't go hungry here!"

"What is your plan in reference to attacking the fleet tomorrow?" Iota asked.

"I'm going to carry about twenty ships in the netting, and make multiple trips. Do you want to go with me?"

"I'll stay behind and wait for you to return. I don't want to get caught in the middle of a war!"

"That probably would be best," Galatcha declared.

"But what are you planning on doing with any Belfuscans you capture?" Iota asked. "Will you kill them?"

"I plan on swallowing them," said Galatcha. "I wonder how many could fit within my belly?"

"There's 300 ships, and about twenty or so men on each ship, I don't think even you could swallow that many, Galatcha!"

"I can sure try!" said Galatcha, with a sinister smile on her face. "I suppose I could enslave whoever I couldn't swallow."

"I'll leave you to get a good night's rest," said Iota. "Tomorrow you're going to make history!"

Iota departed, and Galatcha watched the sunset from the mouth of the cave before going to sleep for the night.

To Be Continued!