Sneezy Giantess in an Isekai-Esque World

[guy that does things]

 

Skaadi was an ordinary giantess living an ordinary giantess life. She did ordinary giantess things, like finding a nice open spot to call home, or hunting, should the need arise. She was lucky enough to find a beautiful clearing, with a cliff face that overlooked a quiet forest glade. She made her residence there, peacefully spending most of her time simply laying around. Unfortunately, though, there was one little issue that she had to constantly deal with…

“Ha… HA… HYAACHOOO!!!” Birds were startled out of trees and flew away, squawking, as a massive sneeze erupted out of Skaadi’s nose. The ground nearby trembled slightly, shaking trees. She suffered from an eternal hayfever, as well as sneezes that were quite a bit stronger than the average giantess. Having dealt with many, many sneezes before, she learned to aim up at the sky, as for the most part, there wasn’t anything to destroy there. Although her nose was fairly normal-sized for a giantess, it was very sensitive to pollen, which was almost guaranteed to set her off. Luckily enough for her, however, fits were rare. A single, positively enormous sneeze was acceptably competent at removing any nasal irritants. 

Skaadi was rather bored with her life, and lonely as well, but she decided that her current home was about the best she could have. Who knows what other horrible and demonic flowers could be out there? As most giantesses were, she was very strong, and the mere sight of her made many creatures sprint away with fear. Despite this, however, she was a very kind and gentle giantess who only intentionally hurt others for food. Her accidental sneezes could easily kill animals, but she’d gotten good at avoiding those scenarios. Little did she know, her life of complacent calm would soon be disrupted, and her shrieking explosions would end up coming in handy more than a few times.

The party was approaching the clearing that the quest clerk had marked on their map. The knight, who was also the leader, looked closely to make sure they hadn’t gone off course. 

“If we were right, the clearing where we find that giantess should be right… here…”

The five members of the party softly gasped as their eyes settled on the slumbering giantess. She was massive, her hand (finger to wrist) being taller than even the tallest member of the party, an orc barbarian. Her nose was by comparison three-fourths as tall as most of the party members. The poor, tiny druid, who was the shortest of the group by far, was actually shorter than the giantess’s nose, and she could easily wriggle her way into a nostril if wanted. (When this thought came across the druid, she shuddered in disgust.) The knight, ever the chivalrous leader he was, decided to wake the giant up before they slayed her, so as to give her a fair fight. When the rest of the party agreed, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted.

“Hello, giantess? We have come to battle and hopefully slay you! Upon your awakening, we challenge you!”

The party was relatively new and inexperienced, but even a much higher level party could see that they had skill, power, and a lot of potential as a team. Whether they were in over their head battling a giantess is another question, but this one in particular had something… special that was about to foil their plans.

“H- huh?” mumbled the waking giantess, sitting up in the clearing. Nobody in the party noticed at the time, but her breath began hitching slightly as soon as she woke up. 

“You want to… fight?”

“Yes!” The knight unsheathed his sword, and everyone else in the party prepared their attacks. “Rather unfortunate, as well, because you seem like a very well-mannered giantess.”

“H- hey, uh, could you wait a buh- bit?” The giantess’s hitches were starting to become more clear, although, what they were caused by could not have possibly been predicted by anyone. “I huuuh- have this desperate need to snuuhhh…” Sneezy tears formed in her eyes, and her expression became faraway. “Snuuhhh… snuuh… sneeze… I cuh- can’t fight if I n-need to sneeze…”

The knight looked back at the rest of the party and shrugged. “Well, I guess we just have to wait. If you have blades to sharpen, mana to recharge, or spells to prepare, you get a bit more time to do so.”

The mage spoke up. “I don’t really think her sneeze will come out, you know… It looks kind of stuck.”

The orc barbarian, who was much more perceptive than both her species and role would suggest, added her insight. “Giantess sneezes are dangerous, no? We should maybe make more of an effort to not get hit…”

The giantess, overhearing, hitched out a “Hih… It r-really… really h-hih hih hiiis stuck… And d-don’t worry, I won’t aim at hihhh yo- huh…”

The thief joined in. “Well, I guess it’s up to us to get it unstuck? Do we even have any way of doing that?”

Everyone turned to look at the druid, who had lost interest in the current scenario and was using her magic to grow some tiny flowers across one of her wooden bracelets. “W- what?! What are you suggesting I do?”

“Well,” said the ever-reasonable knight, “since you’re so adept with pollen…”

“Ugh, why do I have to do all the dirty jobs around here? Fine!” Using a vine that grew from the ground, she lifted herself up to the comically unfocused face of the giantess. She grew some flowers that exploded their pollen into her nose, then dove off the vine and hid behind a rock. “Everyone, take cover! She’s gonna-”

“Haaah… Haaaa… HAAAAACHIIEEEEEW!” 

The sneeze was so tremendous it rattled the cliff. Every member of the party (except the druid, who had taken shelter, and the orc, who had anticipated this and also taken shelter) was knocked over as the ground rocked. The giantess had aimed upwards, blowing away clouds, but the shaking was still felt. She had also sprayed wetly into the sky, but because of the distance they flew, the droplets didn’t land back down for nearly a minute, by which point the knight had already gotten back up on his feet. (When the droplets landed, the thief thought it was raining for a moment and reached for his canteen to top it off. When he remembered the sneeze that had happened just a minute ago, he turned pale and took his hand off the lid before he unscrewed it all the way.)

He shouted back, “Now that you are free from your need to sneeze, we’ll make good on our promise to battle!” He was met with a shaky “huuuhhh…”, but was already turned away, calling his teammates. And with a command, the rest of the party gathered together and began to coordinate their attack. All except the orc, who was keen enough to notice that something was wrong. “Guys, maybe we shouldn’t attack so hastily…” But the excitement of her comrades drowned her out. “Wait, seriously…” She looked around nervously as another “h-hih… haaa… h-huuuhhh” floated through the air. The giantess’s eyes were still far away, her mind not thinking about the party in front of her at all as her nose continued to quiver.

The knight, so focused on his plan, cut off the worried orc. “-and ,barbarian, you go in from the side, got it? Does anyone have any questions?” As the rest of the party shook their heads and took up their weapons, the giantess hitched more and more. As the giantess’s eyelids fluttered rapidly and her nostrils flared, the orc decided the best course of action was to take cover again. “Guys, I’m warning you! It’s not safe to-”

But with a battle cry, the party leapt off the cliff and at the giantess, which surprised her enough to turn to face the startling noise. The knight was in the front, aiming straight for the heart, while the thief went to the left to distract her at the neck and the druid sprouted another vine to reach the giantess’s head. The mage stayed back, preparing a lightning spell to strike the tallest point available (the giantess). However, as they leapt, another sneeze, far larger than the last, blew out of the giantess’s face- right into the rest of the party. With a massive “WAH- CHOOOOO!”, the giantess’s head was thrown back as the entire party (minus the orc) was completely sneezed into submission.

Rubbing her nose and sniffling, Skaadi looked down to face the party that was so eager to fight her. “Alright, I finally got that tickle out of my nose. I’m ready to-” With a start, she noticed the mangled bodies of the adventurers on the cliff, ragdolled back into the ground by the force of her sneeze. The thief, who was lucky enough to use his dodge at the right time again, managed to land on the cliff unscathed, and the orc peeked her head out from behind the boulder she had used as cover, but the rest of the team was battered and broken. “Oh…”

Suddenly, however, she heard whistling from the forest. The final member of the party, a cleric, emerged from the pathway. “Whoa-ho, what happened here? Looks like y’all really need a hand.” Green light surrounded her as she cast her healing spell, and the broken limbs and bones of her teammates healed back to new. “This giantess here, she banged you up this bad? She barely has a scratch on her!” The cleric was more experienced than the rest of the team, having been part of other parties before. None of them lasted, however, and the cleric had kept looking around until she found the hidden gem that this ragtag team was. Her healing spells were very powerful due to her experience, which ensured that no major injury on the team stayed for long. She had just come back from being hired by another party, earning some more silver for the team, when she heard the deafening sneeze and rushed over to investigate.

The thief shook his head. “No, we weren’t attacked by the giantess… She accidentally sneezed on us instead when we attacked her first…” The orc, terrified, nodded her head in agreement. The cleric mumbled an “I see…” before strolling over to the confused giantess. “You have bad problems with sneezes?” The giantess fervently nodded her head yes. “Well, I think I may have a solution for you, but this comes on a condition.” Skaadi, who was desperate to find a way to alleviate her sneezes, was ready to agree to anything. “After seeing just how powerful you are, I don’t quite think there’s ever been a more obvious condition. You should join us on our quests and become a member of our party! Then, while you travel with us, I can constantly apply my magic to your nose to relieve some of its itching! I mean, not like you have any choice after all, seeing how my magic would only be temporary on giants anyway. What do you say?”

Skaadi considered the offer, but only for a second. “Deal! I’ll do anything to relieve my nose and its sensitivity.” Her voice was very soft and even seemed shy, which fit with her reluctance to fight and possibly hurt the rest of the team earlier. “What’s you guys’ quest anyway? Slay a dragon? I know a few that live close by…”

“You do talk?” Teased the cleric. “You nodded your head so much it wasn’t quite clear if you did, haha. In any case, our quest is much grander than that. We’re on our way to defeating the Demon Lord himself, you know. It might sound impossible, but this team’s got a shot at it. And now that you’re joining, there’s a chance we might not die before we reach his castle! This is really good news.”

The revelation that they were on a quest to defeat the Demon Lord himself nearly startled Skaadi into declining the offer. Were these people crazy or what? She wasn’t going to risk her life just for- just for her nose, of all things… 

*Sniffle*. Skaadi realized her nose was dripping after those two massive sneezes. Sniffling again, the mucus went back up her nose. *Snrfff*. She tried to sniffle again, but her nose was so clogged that she could barely breathe out of her nose. After trying and failing a few more times, she sighed. “Yeah, I guess it really is. So, when do we start?”

And with that, once everyone recovered enough, the party set out again, this time with a new member. Skaadi got to know each and every person there and their personalities and abilities. Each one had potential, indeed.T hey were all kind and accepting, too, which made the timid giantess feel welcome and very comfortable despite her obvious uniqueness. She made mental notes about each one based on things she had noticed.

The knight, who was defense- oriented, was serious and focused, but wasn’t so aloof that he couldn’t lighten up during moments of peace. He was typically driven to the goal of the next side quest they had taken up, and getting the party stronger was the desire behind each quest he accepted. He made a good, strong leader, and his plans were solid. His magic shield formed force fields around the team when needed, and he was more than willing to lay his own life on the line multiple times to save the party (even though it wasn’t ever necessary.)

The mage, instead of specializing in one sort of magic like most other mages, decided to study all kinds in a generalist fashion. Although this made him weak when it came to specific types of magic, his ability to use so many different forms of magic proved invaluable, particularly when enchantments came into play, which happened quite a bit more than would be expected. Aside from enchantments, however, he also studied mana, elemental magic, enhancement spells, and even dabbled in alchemy. He was also a soft-spoken person who tended to study up his magic instead of socializing with the rest of the party, but he wasn’t against joining them at any point and could hold his own conversation.

The druid was a small elf woman who had lived in the forest her whole life and began practicing plant magic at a very young age, giving her a head start in knowledge and skill when she left her tribe to join the party upon reaching adulthood. She knew about nearly every plant that they encountered, and if she didn't, she would collect it and store it to be studied later. Her goal was to memorize key information about every plant in the world and how it could be utilized, and based on her progress so far, it didn’t seem unfeasible. She was rather fiery and expressive, like many people of her size tended to be, but she could keep a cool head and listened to the knight without question.

The thief was a quick-witted, talkative guy who loved to crack jokes constantly. He was a skilled burglar with nimble hands, but his assassination skills were less than impressive. He was the life of the party, quite literally, and started most conversations. Sometimes he ran his mouth too long, to the annoyance of the other members, but when he realized this, he would clam up immediately for fear of bothering them so much they would kick him out. He treasured the concept of the dagger, and was always looking to either find or get a blacksmith to craft a better one than what he currently possessed. Most of the materials he collected went straight to being crafted in the hopes of finding his one true dagger.

The orc was obviously very physically capable, but she was very keen in senses, too. As shown before, she was careful in all situations and not so quick to charge into battle, contrary to most of her tribe. However, when the time came to it, she was more than capable of pulling out her axe and chopping up some enemies, especially the undead (with whom she lacked qualms about morals). She loved to share a laugh with her friends, and she particularly enjoyed the company of the thief.

The cleric was arguably the strongest member of the party, as her healing abilities were so good that the team rarely needed to worry about getting seriously hurt before a quick spell would heal them right back up. She was kind, as most clerics were, but also had a sharp, sometimes biting wit that she loved to tease her friends with. She was especially good at getting the thief to shut up after a particularly snarky quip. Aside from her healing, however, the cleric liked to mix magic with science and frequently studied human and monster (can’t forget giantess) anatomy in order to maximize the effectiveness of her healing. 

Skaadi loved her new companions, and despite her shyness, was able to incorporate into the party fairly easily. Their teamwork was fluid and smooth, and they tended to have little to no struggles on their journeys. True to her word, the cleric used her magic to soothe Skaadi;s nose somewhat, and the druid pitched in with her herbal remedies, leaving Skaadi relieved. Her new friends may have been crazy, but crazy was certainly more interesting than laying near a cliff all day. The party went on many, many adventures together, many of them utilizing Skaadi and some of those even utilizing her sneezes, but those stories will have to wait until next time.

(This is my first sneeze story, sorry if it was too much plot and not enough sneeze... I have a tendency to craft lots of story for most things I write.)

[sneezyfeather338]

This story is very interesting. You’re right that there’s not a lot of sneezing, but in this kind of story, knowing the characters before hand could help create all sorts of interesting scenarios for more sneezes to be incorporated. I for one appreciate a bit of storytelling along with sneezing, it gives the reader a better image of what the characters are like and how they interact with each other. So keep up the good work and I can’t wait for the next update.

Until next time.🥰😍😘

[Dingle]

agreed. i would love to see how each of these characters responds emotionally to a sneeze aswell

[Zracken3]

This was a very good first sneeze story! I think it had a fine amount of sneezing, and I love all of the indirect worldbuilding and characterization that was in it. A lot of sneeze stories use very generic characters and get straight to the point--which is perfectly alright--but I enjoy all the storytelling aspects, and having all of the characters feel like distinct people is both impressive and immersive. So, I for one appreciated all of the plot, and I hope we get to see more of it developed in time. I also liked how descriptive you were with things both physical and mental. For example, I like how you provided a scale for Skaadi by comparing the size of her hand and nose (good choice, haha) to the others. I think getting a grasp on the size of the "main character" in a giant/giantess story is important given how wide the range can be. As an example of something mental, I liked the insight you gave into the thief's thought process when it started "raining," as things like that help to solidify the character's personality and make them feel more real (not to mention providing a bit of a comedic aside). In summary, I think you did a great job, and a lot of that was because of the story elements not in spite of them

[guy that does things]

honestly i kinda feel weird when i spell out sneezes, sometimes i read stories and the way they spell them out are weird and overly gratuitous, especially giant sneezes. its possible i might even omit them completely, but ill have to see how i feel about that.

in any case i'm glad yall like it! ill keep writing some follow ups (although there wont be any guarantees on how much ill get out, i do have things i personally want to write, so...)

[Zracken3]

I would write your stories however you enjoy writing them. I agree that some sneeze spellings get kind of crazy, especially with giant sneezes, but everyone has their own preferences for what they like and don't like in that regard. I, personally, like the sneezes to be spelt out in some manner, and I do like some exaggeration when it comes to giant sneezes, but there's a limit. I feel like spelling out sneezes is also something one gets used to or better at with practice. But, again, write your stories how you'd like to (otherwise they don't get written, haha).

[Zracken3]

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Edited July 30, 2023 by Zracken3
accidental double post--please delete

[Snakebyte]

Looking forward to the follow ups.  Isekai style stories are pretty well-tread at this point, but personally I think that's actually a good thing for writers since everything outside of the "usual" stands out more and feels original.

[Dingle]

i would hope you don't omit them completely, the spelling can get crazy. i would recommend just some basic spelling and just messing around with bold and font size. of course it is your story and this is definitely a story where the sneezes are an afterthought which i can appreciate

[RattleJake80]

Really great story. I really hope you continue it. I'll just give you some ideas about a possible sequel. You could put your giantess who is sick, and she has a terrible cold. Seeing that her magic is ineffective this time, the entire party, except the ogre, sneak into the giantess's nose and trick her into sneezing.