The ground quaked as if the very earth was a drum head. Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.... the beat was as consistent as it was powerful. Tirik rolled off the trail and into the embracing arms of the jungle underbrush. He knew of only one force that shook the world in this way: Luruhkhatka, Lady of the Trees. More demon than god, the stories of her whorled through Tirik's mind. He'd never seen her himself, but if the tales were true, she might just be the last thing he saw.

Trees crashed to the ground, adding their own thumps to the fast-approaching rhythm. Clear blue sky poked through the new rips in the forest canopy. Thump-thump-crack! Crash! Thump-thump... every second brought the dangerous being closer. She'd be upon him any moment; her pounding was already shaking leaves free of their arboreal bonds. But Tirik still couldn't see her through the dense jungle flora. The hunting spear in his grasp shivered. Was she that close, or was it just his fear?

Both.
A trunk across the trail was uprooted and shoved aside in one frightful motion. In its place appeared a column twice as strong. Tirik might've mistaken it for another tree had he not witnessed the event unfold. Enormous, shapely, and brown: the only giveaway of the imposter was its flat base from which five wriggling roots dug into the ground. He could only marvel at it until a feminine yawn drifted down from above. He tore his eyes upward.

Luruhkhatka stood there in all her glory. She was the largest thing Tirik had ever seen; the canopy barely even reached her hips, and he, the tallest in his village, only came up to the bottom of her ankle. However, despite her infernal size, the Lady of the Trees was not anything like he'd expected. The stories told that she was enchantingly beautiful, yes, but he'd been imagining a demoniac figure of jagged bark and evil thorns. He was surprised by how normal she looked: perfectly human, only bigger. Soft skin, a round face that bore large, expressive eyes, a lithe body with perfect breasts and wide hips that surrounded a shorn womanhood. Luruh could've been the prettiest girl in his village if she were smaller. When she yawned again, Tirik's heart melted. He emerged from the bush.

Her face lit up as she noticed him. She smiled and giggled, and then lifted a hand in greeting. The man waved back, his own smile wide and giddy from her attention. Luruh laughed again, light and mirthful like the tweeting of songbirds. Tirik opened his mouth to speak--

His view of her was replaced by a dark and dirty ceiling. Clods of dirt fell around him as her toes wriggled excitedly. The man was paralyzed by both fear and enchantment... until the sole descended. It caught Tirik suddenly, and surprise made his spear fall from his grasp. His back hit the dirt trail. For a moment, all she did was rest her grimy skin atop him. But then the pressure began. Soft at first, but soon the wrinkled sole was asphyxiating him with its weight. He pounded against her, thrashed his legs, and squirmed as his lungs cried out for oxygen and his head begged for a release from the crushing pressure.

It got its wish. With one quick thrust, Luruh finished the job. A sick crunch echoed off the tree trunks as Tirik exploded like a cracked nut. The giantess giggled at the sound. Then, reinvigorated from the little distraction, she continued on her way. She didn't stop to examine the little man's remains; she'd seen it all before. She merely strode on into the jungle, leaving the crumpled mass that was once Tirik to be found by his village within a giant footprint in the trail.

Whenever again his friends would hear the thump-thump-thump-thump of her approach, his name would be secondmost in their minds-- right behind the name of Luruhkhatka.