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said.
    The little people shared sidelong glances.
    “Secret?” Peluthe said.
    “That the giants have abandoned these woods,” Jason clarified.
    “Oh, yes, that secret.” Peluthe glanced up at the windows.“You know, we have another secret. A bigger one. Retta, close the shutters.”
    Retta snatched up a pole and moved about the room, using it to secure the shutters. The last ones she closed covered the westward windows. “The sun is almost gone,” she said.
    “Right,” Peluthe agreed. He winked at Jason. “Ready for a shocker?”
    Each of the little people rose from his chair and collected a coarse, brown blanket from a folded pile beneath the huge table. Most of their knowing eyes remained on Jason as they began wrapping themselves in the blankets. Jason stood up and backed a few steps away, concerned by the peculiar change in attitude. He did not trust the new atmosphere in the room. Their bearings seemed suddenly menacing. Beneath the large blankets, the little people appeared to be disrobing.
    As one, the little people dropped to their knees. They clenched their teeth and tightened their fists. A couple of them groaned.
    “Are you all right?” Jason asked, growing distressed.
    “Be right with you,” Peluthe gasped.
    Their small bodies began to swell. As the expansion became more pronounced, they all commenced moaning and crying out. After a slow start, the growth came rapidly. A few staggered to their feet, now the height of regular people. Peluthe and Retta shot up taller than Jason. And the growth continued.
    Hoping he was not too late, Jason shrugged on his backpack and dashed for the front door. The little door in the base of the larger one had been locked with a key. He slammed his shoulder against it, but the portal would not give. A large hand caught Jason by the shoulder, hurling him to the floor. Eight feet tall and still growing, Peluthe blocked access to the door. Grimacing and coughing, Peluthe doubled over as his body inflated more.
    Panicked, Jason turned in a circle. There were no other doors. The windows were out of reach and shuttered. The stairs to the second floor were now guarded by Deloa and Saul, whose sweaty bodies continued to thicken and grow taller. Jason could now tell that the blankets were actually large tunics.
    Jason rushed to the huge fireplace, dodged past the fading coals of the small cooking fire, and raced around the great cauldron. The stones at the rear of the fireplace were rough and fitted imperfectly, offering abundant handholds. A hasty glance over his shoulder revealed the former little people wracked by a final onslaught of painful expansion, completing their transformation into powerful giants. The codger stood up. Jason was no longer much higher than his waist.
    With speed born from desperation, Jason scaled the soot-blackened stones, certain that a horrible death awaited if he missed a handhold and fell. After reaching the dark throat of the chimney, Jason climbed higher, unsure how far up the giants could reach.
    “He’s getting away!” boomed a mighty voice.
    “After him, you dunce,” called someone else.
    The chimney narrowed as he scrambled higher. Jason did not believe the giants could follow him. He heard the cauldron being dragged out of the way.
    “Prongs!” spat a voice directly below him. “He climbs like a lizard!”
    “Grab him!”
    Jason heard hands scuffing against stone not far below his feet.
    “I can’t reach.”
    “Well, climb, you oaf!”
    “You want to try to squeeze up there?”
    Jason reached a narrow ledge where there was a slight elbow inthe chimney. He paused, panting, seated as if on a bench.
    “Come on down, Matt,” suggested the husky voice of a woman—probably Retta—trying to sound sweet. “We mean you no harm.”
    “You’ll have to do better than that,” Jason called.
    “Blast!” the woman shouted. “Why were you so rough with him?”
    “I thought we had the pest cornered.”
    “Why didn’t somebody