Work Text:
Gaarg brushed idly at the ants climbing across his leg as he prepared to move. Tiny little things they were, more annoyance than discomfort, and he flicked a few small rocks their way just to see them squirm. But those small creatures were only a distraction from his current troubles now that his family had finally come to blows. Xarz and Hraag were battling before him, their oaths the crack of thunder in the sky as they roared their undying hatred on the wind.
This fight had been a long time coming since their loathing was etched into the very rock which held them but Gaarg had not yet decided which of his sons to aid. Watching them attack each other, jagged boulders hurtling through the air to smash on iron skin, he cursed his wife again for bearing twins.
Stone giants were only meant to have one child, one new peak rising from the bones of the old, not this fractured splitting of his heart. So he stood aside and watched as his sons tore each other to pieces, waiting for one of them to fall. Xarz was the elder twin and the stronger, perhaps he would strike the final blow. Yet Hraag's missiles flew more swiftly, with precision if not force, and Gaarg truly did not know who would prevail.
And all at once the giant did not care.
“Enough!” he roared, a rumble which echoed from the mountainside and froze his children in their tracks. “You have vented your anger, now be done with it for I have put up with your feuding long enough.”
However, the younger giants were too enraged to listen, their fight beginning to erupt once more and so their father joined the fray at last. Gaarg pulled himself up from the rocky peaks, their cold embrace releasing him with a reluctant shriek of cracking stone. He rose and rose, his height dwarfing that of his children and he noticed almost off-hand that the ants which plagued him were fleeing for their lives. But they were insignificant creatures so the giant put them from his mind as he ripped chunks off the mountainside and hurled them into the storm.
Gaarg's aim was true and the boulders shattered against his children, forcing them to stumble back against the peaks. Then they turned to face him, for once united by the fury in their eyes. But their father only grinned in the face of sons' hatred because he had finally made his choice.
“If you wish to fight so badly, then fight me!” Gaarg thundered and Hraag rose to the challenge, his weapon followed moments later by his brother's strike. The younger giants turned on him together and while their father matched them blow for blow, Gaarg knew that he would fall. He would fall tonight and with his death, his sons would find serenity.
Without him here to trap them in their hatred, there would be enough space in these mountains for both of them to thrive. Thus, when Xarz threw one final boulder, the stone giant did not dodge. Instead Gaarg opened his arms and awaited his fate with a smile until the rock struck true.
Finis