Once upon a time in a beautiful valley there was a village. In that small village lived a young woman named Elle. Elle was stunning, with long golden hair and kind blue eyes. She had no family and was raised by an older lady that had passed a few years ago.
Elle was popular among the villagers and known for her kindness. She taught the children how to read, helped elderly people keeping their houses clean and she knew how to sew the most beautiful dresses, as the woman who had taken her in many years ago, who happened to be a seamstress, taught her. One day Elle sat in front of a project she had always been excited for. But now that the white cotton fabric was laying down in front of her, she just felt her stomach ache. She was to be married to one of the villagers. It was an arranged marriage. The man she had to marry was handsome, tall and well-known. But he was also very unkind, bullying his fellow classmates back in school as Elle remembered and his hobby was going hunting in the forest to kill innocent animals. Elle didn't want to marry him at all. But she felt like she had no other choice. She didn't have a family protecting her or anywhere to run to. So she kept working on her wedding dress. It had to have a long train and a long veil aswell. It had to look romantic, because Elle adored romantic things. But she couldn't imagine anything more unromantic than her own arranged marriage ahead of her. The night before her wedding Elle sat amongst the young children of the village around a big bonfire. Their teacher told them an old tale that every villager knew. It was about Thunder Mountain and the giant that lived there. Thunder Mountain was the biggest mountain around the village, nobody really dared to climb it because it was far too dangerous and big. Because the mountain deemed up so high a lot of thunderstorm haunted the mountain in the summer and autumn time. On some part of the huge mountain a giant lives, as the tale tells. The giant is twisted and hates humans. The tale tells that the giant is ugly and so intimidating that even the animals of the forest don't dare to come anywhere near him. Usually the tale of the giant from Thunder Mountain was told to children so they wouldn't go to far into the deep dark forest that set on the lowest level of thunder mountain. But to get even past the dark huge forest would take many hours, so nobody ever actually attempted to reach the higher summit areas of thunder mountain. Elle looked around with a smile as the children asked their teacher question on the giant and if he would ever come down to their village. Elle calmed the children down and helped bringing them back safely to their homes. As Elle helped putting out the bonfire she looked between two houses towards the direction of thunder mountain. She could make out the huge dark forest and some birds flying in the midnight sky. She sighed. That whole area did look dangerous and scary, nobody would be dumb enough to ever go explore it. Or even go out to look for someone there. That night Elle couldn't sleep. It wasn't because of her unwanted wedding that awaited her the next morning, it was a plan that she hadn't though of before that kept her up all night.
A few hours later daylight shone into Elle's bedroom. She got dressed in her wedding gown that now looked different than she had planned. The long veil and trail had been carefully cut by her the night before to make her dress more practical for the plan she had. As Elle was finished brushing and braiding her long golden hair she looked at herself in the mirror. This wasn't what she wanted. She wanted to marry someone she truly loved and that truly loved her back. Someone kind, caring and sweet. She knew what she had to do. Elle was picked up by her fiancées mother that walked her to the church. There she was led to a small room she could wait in before the ceremony started. To her surprise nobody had noticed the fear Elle was feeling. And to her even bigger surprise she was left alone in the small room. Quickly she checked the window that was thankfully unlocked. Just as she climbed out the window she heard a knock at the door. ,,Ready?'' her fiancé asked in a confident voice. Elle heard a second knock as she was already outside of the church. Quickly she checked if anyone was out here aswell, but fate was on her side. She took a deep breath and started running for her life. The church was very close to the deep dark forest that was set on the foot of Thunder Mountain. As Elle passed by the first tree she heard voices screaming her name from not too far away. Elle had beautiful long legs and the sound of her fiancé screaming her name in anger only motivated her to run even faster. She didn't dare to look back, she needed to focus on not running into any hole, tree or any other obstacle. After a while the adrenaline rush left her body and Elle hid behind a huge tree. She had no idea how long she had been running for, but the deep fear what her fiancé would do to her if he ever caught her kept her going and going. She couldn't hear anything around her but the noises of the forest. The wind that gushed through the leaves and the birds chirping. After a short break to catch her breath, she kept on going. It was getting colder by the hour and Elle needed to find shelter from the cold of the night. Just before dawn Elle reached the edge of the forest. In disbelief she looked at the beautiful mountain meadow ahead of her.
There were many wildflowers blooming and it was a stark contrast to the dark forest. Elle lifted her now pretty dirty white dress and giggled. She was free! She had made it! No one would ever dare to go through that forest. But somehow she did it and nothing bad had happened to her. Elle kept on walking thorugh the beautiful meadow further up Thunder Mountain noticing that the sun was setting by now. In the golden glowy light she walked for maybe half an hour past a bending river, a beautiful lake and some more trees (but not enough trees to form a forest). Behind a huge old tree that must have stood there for hundreds of years Elle noticed something she hasn't expected. From afar it looked like a big wooden hut or cottage. Maybe it had been abandoned? Either way it would be the perfect place for Elle to spend the cold night that was on its way. Happily and with curiousity Elle approached the wooden house. But her heart dropped deeper with each step she got closer. The house seemed to get bigger and bigger. As Elle stood before the front porch she felt tiny. The house was at least twice the size of a normal house. Even the front door was huge, and the windows aswell. It was almost dark and Elle already saw the moon up in the sky, she knew she had to take this chance. So she climbed the big stairs and reached for the doorknob that was barely in her reach. As the big old wooden door creaked open Elle carefully stepped inside the cottage. She noticed how tired she was and the place looked tidy and fine. Her eyes stopped gazing around when she noticed a huge bed in one corner of the big room. As if it was her own bed, Elle wanted to climb into it. But before she was able to do so, she heard the ground outside slightly shaking and noticed that the vase upon the huge nightstand started shaking. Elle quickly hid under the bed hoping it was just an approaching thunder storm. But what she heard didn't sound like thunder at all. More like really big footsteps. And they came closer. Elle heard the wood from the front porch creak loudly as if something huge was standing on it. She didn't notice any of the wooden floors making any noise as she walked upon them. Of course Elle could have counted one and one together just by accepting her larger than life surorundings but she was still in denial. The story from her childhood was just an old tale. Elle noticed her hands were shaking as she peeked out and saw the front door of the cottage opening. Out of her hiding spot Elle didn't dare to take a look and squinted her eyes shut. She tried to not make a sound and almost held her breath in order to do so. The front door was gently shut and she could feel the floor shaking with each step whoever was in the cottage now aswell did. Elle could hear breathing. And it sounded like fabric was hung opon somewhere. A chair, maybe the huge chair at the kitchen table she had caught a glimpse of before?, was moved aside and it sounded like some huge creature sat down on it. The chair made a loud creaking noise and the vase on the bedside table, that had been shaking with every move of the creature, finally fell down right in front of Elles hiding spot. Elle opened her eyes as she heard the crashing noise and quickly moved away from one on the shards of the vase that had landed beside her, luckily not harming her. The creature stood up from the chair, she could hear that, and it started speaking. ''What was that?'' a deep male voice asked. It was loud and sounded like it came from the ceiling almost. Elle saw two huge feet suddenly standing in front of the bed. She held her breath. Then the creature seemed to bend down to pick up the broken parts of the vase. She could see a huge human hand reaching for the the shards that carefully picked up the pieces. Suddenly the hand started reaching under the bed aswell, scaring Elle so much that she let out a scream, before quickly covering her mouth with her hands. The hand stopped moving and the creature got on his knees, once again shaking the ground.
