Prologue

The rain fell hard, heavy droplets descended relentlessly from the heavens as if the darkened sky had declared a war of wetness upon anything and everything beneath it. I found myself a victim of this onslaught.

Having been separated from my group some time ago, I was on my own, and I missed them. Well, I didn't miss them, to be honest, not them as individuals, at least. What I actually missed was the companionship. The way it made things a bit more bearable just knowing I wasn't alone, that no matter how rough life gets, there's still another soul nearby enduring the same situation. That knowledge was always able to numb the pain of loneliness, and that's really what I missed about being in a group. But there I was, alone once more, caught in the storm with no company save for my own misery.

Heavy raindrops pelted my aching body, slamming down upon my back with enough force to make me grimace from the pain of impact. The storm showed no signs of letting up anytime soon, and so I decided that if I must be trapped in it, I may as well work to construct some sort of shelter for myself.

I worked quickly, gathering the materials I would need, scurrying around the ground as the water continued to fall all around me. I had collected a fair amount of twigs and was carrying them underneath my arms when a crack of thunder roared loudly, shaking the sky. Startled, I jumped and dropped all of my materials. I lowered myself to the ground, planting my knees into the mud where they remained as I hastily gathered my twigs once more with a frown on my face.

With the twigs in hand once more, I found a clear spot to construct my shelter. I drove them into the dirt with all of my strength, wanting nothing more in that moment than to get out of the rain. After the frame was in place, I draped many leaves over it, each of them longer than my entire body.

My structure was no feat of engineering. It was a poorly constructed puny little thing that would almost certainly have been ripped from the earth and blown away into the distance had the wind picked up on that day. But as I looked upon it, I couldn't help but smile softly. I took refuge beneath it and sighed, satisfied that I was finally out of the rain.

I shivered as the rain continued to pour down onto the earth below, the large droplets crashing down onto my leaf ceiling over my head. I tried to start a small fire, to no avail. Disappointed, I laid down on the wet earth and fell asleep.

A booming sound nearby extinguished my slumber. I awoke to find myself still soaking wet and cold, and the rain continued to come down outside my shelter. My soggy clothes clung to my tired body as I hugged myself tightly in an attempt to feel warmth. Whatever the booming sounds had been, they seemed to have ceased.

Suddenly, a female voice spoke softly from above. “What is this?” Though she spoke softly, there was a power behind her words. I knew right away why this was, and my heart filled with fear.

A massive index finger and thumb pinched the leaves which made up my ceiling. Their owner's hand pulled them back, peeling the roof away from my shelter and revealing a gigantic young woman crouching over me, her immense body looming overhead.

Long strands of her beautiful brown hair escaped from the hood of her pink sweatshirt which she wore to keep her head dry in the rain and she gently brushed the loose hair away from her face with her hand. Her eyes grew wide and lit up when they fell upon me.

“Oh my god... you poor little thing, trapped out here in the rain all alone...”

There seemed to be genuine concern in her voice, but I was still terrified. She reached her right hand and extended it towards me. I fell flat on my back and instinctively pushed out my arms to try and defend myself but ultimately gave in as she wrapped her powerful fingers around my tiny body and scooped me up from the ground. I could have tried fighting her, but I knew it would have been futile. There would have been no chance of escaping her grasp, even if I'd wanted to.

She held me in her soft palm and brought me closer to her face. Her gorgeous eyes scanned me and she smiled. I felt powerless, a wet blob cowering in a younger girl's hand.

“It's okay, little one,” she said, perhaps sensing my fear. “You're safe now, and you'll never have to live like this again.”

I wanted desperately to trust her, to be able to taker her words as truth, but I had no idea whether or not I could. Only time would tell. She offered me another smile, and I gazed into her gorgeous colossal face as she closed her warm hands together around me, sealing me in darkness.