"She is so tall," Arianna observed blandly, with no inflection. "Hello!"
Vilkas twitched in surprise. He hadn't expected the usually monotonous Arianna to shout.
"Hmm, it seems that she can't hear me..." Arianna said at about the same time.
Beyond the invisible wall, the giantess seemed to be contemplating them too. She was easily three meters tall, with sturdy proportions, a long mane of brown hair, and large blue eyes. Giants and humans looked a great deal alike, other than their size. Not all demi-human tribes could say the same.
"Is she trying to talk? I can't hear her..." "Sighed Arianna," and she reached out a pale hand once again, setting it on the wall. Again, an iridescent shimmer passed over the surface, this time causing the giantess to take a step back, her eyes roaming the wall as if afraid it might come crashing down.
The giantess set her eyes on their small party again, looking confused and worried. Arianna watched as her very large muscles bunched up and took a cautious step back herself, predicting what was going to happen next. Sure enough, the woman pulled her fist back and then slammed it into the wall as hard as she could.
Nothing. Not even the shimmering that had happened when Arianna touched the wall. She couldn't even hear the sound of the fist's impact. Curious, Arianna reached up once again and set her hand on the wall, opposite the woman's fist. She had to almost get on her tippy-toes to accomplish this. Like the previous two times, the wall shimmered.
The giantess jerked away from the wall and eyed Arianna with an emotion she could not quite decipher, especially with the oil-slick-like lights obstructing her view. She lowered her hand, but the giant woman was already backing away. After about four hesitant steps, she spun on her heel, took one last look over her shoulder, and then ran out into the barrens.
"She is very fast." Arianna observed, watching as the strange woman vanished from sight in record time, leaving an orange dust cloud in her wake. After a few more seconds, Arianna spoke out loud once again. Feeling comforted that, though they could not speak back to her, her animal companions were at least intelligent enough to understand her words. "So there are races other than humans here? Not that I know that there are humans at all..."
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Arianna thought that this encounter should have left her feeling something. Anything, really. Whether that be surprise, fear, or just disappointment that the first 'human-like' being she had met had vanished without a trace without ever sharing a conversation. Arianna thought that feeling those things was how 'most people' would behave. But she didn't feel happy that she wasn't the only humanoid on this strange world, afraid that such huge and powerful people existed, nor disappointed that even that powerful being could not break through this wall. No, Arianna only felt a dim sort of curiosity.
"Why am I not 'normal'?" She seemed to ask the universe. Of course, neither the voice of God nor the two animals could answer her questions. She then felt a twinge of sadness and loneliness at last, however faint the emotions might have been. As if it were a habit ingrained into her very being, Arianna shoved the emotion aside and reached a hand out to stroke Vilkas' head.
"Don't fight." Arianna sighed, looking just a little amused. She set her eyes back on the dome and contemplated. "It seems that we are locked in this swamp. Still, outside the swamp does not look much better... But there are people out there, living and growing."
Neither Vilkas nor Varnas could argue with that. Life outside the dome, for any being not within the 'warm embrace' of the evil goddess, was bleak and depressing... but at least it was life. Here, in the dome, lay nothing but a slow and eventual death. Whether it be the lack of food, clean water, and air, or the toxic, mana-charged fog that rolls in, death comes to all within the dome, as was intended.
"Let's head back to the cave," said Arianna, turning her back on the dome. She kept her hand within Vilkas' fur and guided him back the way they had come. Just as the barrens were out of sight, she looked back over her shoulder, seeing Vilkas hovering overhead. "We'll be back. I refuse to die at the hands of another again..."
Arianna could not remember anything of her past life outside of vague impressions of moments she was better off not recalling in the first place... But she did think that her life had been hard, and even that pathetic existence had been taken from her. Now, probably due to the strange woman she had seen before falling from the sky, she was being forced into another hard life. An unfair and pitiful one.
Not this time. Besides, Arianna thought as she stroked Vilkas' head and continued back toward the cave, I am not alone anymore. Even if not for myself, I want to get Vilkas and Varnas out of here. They were so kind to her—even Varnas, in his own cantankerous way—despite having no reason to have taken her in. She didn't know what they were exactly, but they deserved freedom and a good life.
She didn't know what she could do, but she knew that she wasn't prepared to sit around and let herself and the others die in this miserable place. There had to be a land they could go to, where no one would hassle them, where they could be free to live in peace and good health. There had to be.