Madison was sitting at the entrance of the church, her legs tucked to her chest and arms wrapped around her thighs. She didn't see me at first as I approached, but when I reached the base of her feet, her teary face rose up from behind her knees.

“...Eliot,” Madison said with a meek, shaky voice.

“Madison,” I tried to say, “I-”

“Don't come near me!” Madison yelled out.

Madison's toes shrank back from me, and I saw her curling herself into a tighter ball, trying to lean as much of herself into the wall as she could. I just stood still, raising my hands in the air in the surrender gesture, and tried to be as non-threatening as I could look, though I wasn't sure how to go lower than zero threat to a giantess.

“Okay, Madison,” I said in a slow voice, “I'll just talk from here.”

Madison's tears poured quicker the more she looked at me. She tried to hide her massive body behind her legs, turning her gaze away form me. “...Please don't come near me,” Madison said, almost as a whimper, “I'll only hurt you again.”

“I'll be right here,” I said, seating myself down on the stone pavement upon which I stood, “Can we talk, Madison?”

She didn't say anything, but I took Madison's silence to be consent.

“Come on, Maddie,” I said, trying to urge her to talk, “Tell me what's on your mind.”

Madison's face was buried into the fabric of the dress she wore, slow sobbing hiccups bubbling up as she tried to speak. “I-I was scared...” Madison said, her voice still trembling, “Scared that I-...I might have hurt you.”

“What happened today wasn't your fault,” I tried to say comfortingly, but Madison just pulled herself in tighter.

“You don't understand!” Madison shouted, her sudden outburst loud enough to leave my ears ringing, “Even before we came to the North, I realized that...I-...I-...I've made excuses, allowances, because I thought if I were around you, I could forget that I-I was a giantess. If it were you, Eliot, y-you'd treat me like any other girl...”

Madison's head peeked out from behind her knees; her eyes were completely reddened from crying. Something inside me sank when I saw them. I felt a pang of guilt at letting my girl cry as sorely as she did now. I really should have been at her side all this time.

“But that was a mistake,” Madison said, rubbing her tears out with the back of her wrist, “I became selfish, a-and I had forgotten how small you were. Every time I forced myself onto you, when I pinned you down under my foot whenever I disagreed with you...I...I forget that just a small misstep would get you hurt, or worse…”

"I'll hurt you," Madison said with a sniffle, "It's not possible for a giantess to not hurt the tiny she's with."

"Madison," I said chancing a step forward, "If I was afraid of getting hurt by you, I wouldn't have stayed with you for so long. I'm here because I want to!"

A small, sad smile crept across Madison's face. She tucked her legs behind her, shifting herself so she crouched right before me. "I love you, Eliot," Madison said with tears held back, "And after all the time I've been with you, I know you best. You'd do anything for the one you love, even if you hurt yourself. But the one thing I couldn't bear to see is for you to get hurt, especially for me."

With trembling arms, Madison held my hands in her own. Unable to hold back, Madison's eyes flowed with a torrent of sorrowful tears, her voice bearly coherently forming the words, "Let's break up."

Before I could answer, before I even had time to react to her words, Madison let go of me and stood up, running from the church as fast as she could. I just sat there, stunned and unable to comprehend what had happened. Madison's hand were drenched in her tears, and I just stared blankly at my hands which were soaked in them.

Did I just get dumped?

When morning came around again, I woke up in the middle of the mountain of pillows inside the church, alone this time, without the early morning figure of Madison in front of me. The church felt deathly empty, like an abandoned mansion in the middle of nowhere. I got out of my sleeping bag and began to change by myself.

I hadn't slept well. Thoughts of what happened kept racing through my mind, unable to process what I had just experienced. I knew couples would breakup because they didn't like each other, I just didn't know they could breakup because they love each other.

When I was done changing, I just lay there on one of the giant pillows, unsure of what to even do without Madison around. There wasn't anywhere I could go safely inside the Garden without her, as the rules of this place required every tiny to be accompanied by a giantess.

My question was answered by the timely arrival of a set of footsteps outside the church. Stephanie peered her head in, puzzled at the absence of Madison inside it.

"Mister Eliot," Stephanie said when she spotted me atop my pillow, "Where is Miss Madison?"

"Mumble mutter ramble," I said. Even I couldn't understand myself, with the jarble of thoughts going through my head.

Stephanie walked over to me, picking me up lightly with both hands, but had to use one of her hands to stifle a gasp when she saw me. "Oh my," she said in a hushed voice.

I didn't know what she meant until she brushed her giant finger across my face, and it was only then I realised tears had welled up in my eyes.

"I..." I began, but broke into a sob began. It hurt. Breaking up hurts. It was funny that I could hold my feelings in when I'm alone, but in in front of someone trying to comfort me, my emotions ran free.

Stephanie gave me several pats to the back, trying to calm me down with words like "It's okay" and "You're alright". I let out all the tears I held within me, and stopped with a final sniffle. Stephanie had placed me back on the ground, pouring water from a flask she had handy on her personage. She handed me the bucket sized cap filled with the water, and I gobbled it down as quickly as I could muster.

"Don't worry, Mister Eliot," Stephanie said with a cheery tone once she saw that I had recovered, "Madison is still your guardian here, so once we've found her again, you'll still get a chance to talk to her."

"... Yeah," I muttered.

"For now, lets get you outside," Stephanie said, rising to her feet, "You'll need to eat, Mister Eliot. I don't think you've had a meal since yesterday?"

Stephanie was right. I hadn't realized with all that has happened, but I was famished. I hadn't had anything to eat since the dining hall meeting, and I could feel my stomach rumbling just from the thought of food.

Stephanie chuckled, bending down and offered her hand to me, "Shall we get something to eat then?"

I took Stephanie's hand and hopped onto it, letting her take me into the air. She held me with both hands, a precaution she took after Tiffany's accident, I'd wager. We left the church and retraced the path which would take us back to the dining hall. I was a little apprehensive of returning to that den of overly eager giantesses, and I shuddered to think that they would heckle me again.

"I needed to report Miss Madison's disappearance to Matron Marian, anyway," Stephanie said, making conversation with me as she walked, "We were supposed to have a follow up of yesterday's meeting, but without our representative for the South, hardly any discussion can be done, now can it?"

"What are you going to do, then?" I asked.

"We'll look for her," Stephanie said with a shrug, "With how much a giantess stands out, it won't take very long to find her."

Stephanie explained that the Garden and city had a system for reporting missing persons, especially tinies, and a network of communication between the tiny folk ensured that people shared information very fast. It was technology, that is, phones and electronics, which the giantesses lacked, and Stephanie spoke cheerfully about the many tasks tinies were needed in as proxies. Long distance calls, emails, machine maintenance; there were many things a giantess's size disallowed, but Stephanie mused that their reliance on tinies was a point cooperation between our races.

"Many conflicts would have been avoided," Stephanie said, "If we just saw the merits of living together."

"You seem pretty chipper about all this," I remarked.

"Of course," Stephanie said proudly, "My reason for becoming the North liaison and earning my gold urban giantess license was all so I could understand your culture better. Though my license has been revoked, it is my dear wish to see our races united."

"Wait," I interrupted, "Your license is revoked?"

"Yes," Stephanie said with a little sigh, "My accident with Tiffany did not go unnoticed in the South. They're very strict with their laws: any giantess who has inflicted any sort of harm to the tinies is banned from the South and stripped of any license they hold. Even if it were an accident, it just meant to them that a giantess couldn't handle herself in your cities."

"That's harsh," I said with a furrowed brow, "But what about Claire? Last time, she didn't even come to my town with a license."

"Ah..." Stephanie said in a nervous tone, "Miss Sinclaire is...rather free-spirited. As a noble born to the Matron's bloodline, she has a certain degree of political immunity, and she mostly does what she wants. Just because she's skimmed through books on giantess etiquette in the South, she believes she's entitled to go anywhere she pleases!"

Her tone grew progressively hotter, but I was glad that Stephanie disapproved of her behavior too.

"It was a nightmare trying to explain ourselves," Stephanie said angrily, "Some of the cities she visited have never even seen a giantess before, and already she's painting us to be monsters! All our hard work building relations with them stamped into the ground by a stroll through town!"

I couldn't help but laugh. Watching Stephanie ramble so passionately was a good change of pace. With so many stories of Claire antagonizing the South, my falling out with Madison seemed less important than before.

"Well, Matron Marion was good enough to keep her on a tight leash after she came back," Stephanie continued, satisfied with how much she managed to vent out, "You'll never see her too far away the Matron, so at the very least, she won't be up to any of her shenanigans any time soon."

"I almost feel sorry for her," I said with a chuckle.

"Hmph," Stephanie snorted derisively, "I'll give her a piece of my mind if she tries anything again."

Our conversation had landed us right into the dining hall, with the same familiar faces seated and dining. Matron Marian was seated on the stone altar with her entourage again, and she looked displeased when only Stephanie and I showed up.

"Where is Madison?" She demanded of Stephanie.

"Matron Marian," Stephanie said with a bow, "Miss Madison had been missing since the night, and left Mister Eliot in her adobe."

Marian sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. The other giantesses began whispering amongst themselves, before Marian cut her hand across the air.

"My daughters," Marian said, rising to her full, gargantuan height and addressing the thirteen gathered around her, "Our time for dialogue grows short. We must find Miss Madison before the start of the day's luncheon. Tell our messengers to search the city as well, she couldn't have gone far."

Twelve heads nodded and left. Claire, who had been by Marian's side all this time, just smiled and shrugged.

"Give Eliot to me," Marian said to Stephanie, "You will aid in the search as well. And take Claire with you, I have private matters to discuss with Mister Eliot."

Stephanie vehemently protested, but Marian was not having any of that today. Begrudgingly, Stephanie handed me over and shot scornful looks at Claire, storming out with a smug looking Claire in tow.

I sat in Marian's giant open palm, nervous of what she wanted with me. Her fingers curled toward me like a tidal wave of flesh, and she deftly held onto my body until only my head stuck out from her fist. Marian's hands were enormous; I could feel even the patterned grooves of her skin through my clothing, and my feet barely made it to her pinky. 80 feet made all the difference; if a normal giantess were five foot eight, she'd be a jaw dropping eight foot ten.

"We're going to my personal chambers," Marian stated. Her tone left no room for argument.