Giant Tamer

The town of Albrecht lay under a terrible curse.
Actually, it wasn’t a curse; it was a monster. High up on the mountain that overlooked the village, there lived a giant—not the kind those ridiculous fairy tales tell of, but a real giant, nearly seven feet tall and correspondingly strong. No one knew where he came from, but two years before, he had appeared and had challenged the local baron to single combat. Under the rules of knightly conduct, Baron Von Scharf had little choice but to accept—and that had been the last act of his life. The giant’s long reach, as well as the strength with which he’d swung his battle ax, had ended the combat almost before it began. The giant had promptly moved into the castle, turned the baron’s wife into his housekeeper, and settled in as lord of the baron’s estate, which included Albrecht and its people.
The giant demanded men to work in his fields and an annual tribute of gold and gems, as well as foodstuffs, clothing, and servants to run the castle.
But none of these demands was as bad as the giant’s other appetite—for women. At least once a month, he sent a demand to the village’s mayor, Herr Dorfmann, ordering the mayor to send a woman to the castle for the giant’s intimate use. The first few times this happened, the mayor had paid a local prostitute to journey to the castle and accommodate the giant’s lust, but after the first two ladies of the evening had come back bruised and limping, completely ruined for future—commerce, none of the other village whores would consent to go for any amount of money.
“We must be able to make a living,” the Head of the Prostitute’s Guild had informed the mayor. “Those two of our sisterhood who have endured the monster’s embrace can never work again and must be supported by us. I will not risk the health of another of my Guild.”
From that time forward, the names of each maid and matron in the town over the age of 17 and under the age of 40 years had been put into a lottery.