Desmensi strode purposefully through the halls of the Thylaran palace, as she had done so thousands of times before. All around her were guards, bustling about in all manner of directions. Groups of armored women hurried through the hallways with as much purpose as she. A very few of them spoke with each other over the matter. From what Desmensi could figure from the few pieces of conversation she could pick out, an important discovery was made early this very morning, and had been brought to the Queen’s attention. This greatly piqued Desmensi’s interest, though she fretted little over learning more. Whatever this matter was, if it was important enough to require the guards to be alerted, no doubt it would be discussed at length at the next war council tomorrow. A meeting she, as the Captain of the Third Division of the Thylaran military, would be attending.

For the moment, however, she had other responsibilities to tend to. With her masterfully tailored, and intricately detailed bronze and leather chest guard, vembrages, greaves, and sandals, she practically radiated importance. The scarlet cape at her back, pinned with gold at the left shoulder, completed the uniform nicely. The ornate uniform, ordinarily too gaudy and impractical for military duties, was all too perfect for her second job, and served as a statement of superiority to those she dealt with. Desmensi’s walk led her to a set of large wooden doors, devoid of any locks or guards. Placing a hand on either door, Desmensi braced herself and, with a violent shove, forced the heavy doors to part before her. The doors themselves protested as they scrapped noticeably against the stone floor. They were designed purposefully to so do, as the Titans could not afford even the tiniest of crevices in this room. With another awesome showing of her physical strength, Desmensi sealed the doors once again, and turned to face the occupants of the room. There were no windows in this room, leaving it dreadfully dark, despite the many candles and oil lamps used to bring light to the prison. There was no furniture on decorations within the room, save for a single table, large enough to seat eight Titans for dinner. This table, however, held no food on it’s grimey surface. Rather, it supported thirty metal cages, each of which housed a human.

Each occupant was unique, from men and women, to young and old, to light and dark skinned, in all manner of combination. Each prisoner was dressed in fine silken outfits, marking them as pets that had been collected exclusively from owners within the palace. Some stood on their feet, attempting to give off the impression that they still held some manner of strength within their frail little forms. Other sat on the floor, not even bothering to look up at her. These were the ones that had already been thoroughly broken in to their new lives. Desmensi padded over to the table, enjoying the sensation of looking down at the pathetic beings, that were so weak and powerless before her.

“Good morning, my little darlings.” she greeted the humans in a voice of delight. The little humans made no mistake, though. The delight in her voice did not at all mean warmth and friendship. “I am so happy to see familiar faces among my collection today.”

The giantess placed her palms against the table surface as her titanic body loomed over the prisoners like a living colossus. “Those of you who have been here already are familiar with how our time together shall proceed. For those of you who are here for the first time, my name is Mistress Desmensi, and I am the Mistress of Discipline at the palace.”

The Titan smiled coyly at her audience. “This means that I am in charge of training the lot of you in how to behave as the best possible pets you could be for your owners. For some of you, this is your first time receiving these lessons. For others, this will be a time for you to evaluate your performances thus far, and correct any . . . undesirable behaviors. We will be spending a few short days in each others company, where I will be patiently teaching you all proper etiquette. Should any of you choose to disobey me, there will be . . .” the smile turned into a grin infinitely more sinister. “Consequences. And trust that I am more than willing to distribute these consequences in a hands-on manner. Some owners may feel hesitant to ‘handle’ their pets in too intimate a sense.”

Mistress Desmensi lowered her head until her chin rested just above the tables surface, putting her eyes at level with the eyes of every human currently standing. Her wicked grin had yet to fade from her face.

“I do not hold such sentiments,” she murmured. “Do we understand each other.”

All eyes that had once looked defiantly upon her now dropped to the floor, as the hopelessness of their situation began to settle. Quiet sobbing could be heard from one of the cages. Mistress Desmensi immediately zeroed in on the specific cage. A lovely young woman knelt in her cage, weeping and muttering a prayer to the Stars above for rescue. The Titan cast her a look that might have been as close to sympathy as the giant woman was capable of showing.

“Aw, worry not little one.” she assured in a tone reminiscent of a mother comforting a crying child. In one powerful hand, Mistress Desmensi lifted the cube shaped cage up to her face, while standing at full height. “I promise you that it will be alright. All you must do is follow all of my instructions and we shall be as sisters to each other. Come now, let us get a closer look at you.”

The cage could only be opened by pressing two spring loaded latches on opposite sides of the cage, allowing the roof to be opened. The latches were too heavy for human arms to overpower, and were too far apart for one human to reach at the same time. Only by pressing them at the same time could the roof be lifted up, effectively meaning that the humans had no chance of escaping their cages. With the roof hanging open, Mistress Desmensi plucked the little woman from her confines. The woman, to her great credit, managed to remain relatively calm as she was lifted to the Titan’s face.

“Aw, you poor little thing.” she purred. “Fear not, I can be quite gentle when I desire to be.”

To emphasize her point, Mistress Desmensi slowly brought the young woman to her mouth.

“No!” the woman gasped. “Please! Please don’t eat me Mistress!”

The Titan never stopped, as the woman was brought to her puckering lips, where she proceeded to place a very soft kiss upon the top of her head. Returning the woman back to eye level, she eyed the pet over again.

“Mmmmm, you are quite beautiful, little one.” she remarked.

The small, blonde haired woman, who could scarcely believe that she had not been eaten, looked up at the Mistress of Discipline. Hope began to well up in the pit of her stomach. Perhaps this would not be the end of her, and the Titan truly did not mean them any harm so long as they behaved.

“Th-thank y-you, M-m-mistress Desmensi.” she stammered, attempting a curtsy, which was not at all easy while being held between the fingers of a Titan.

Mistress Desmensi nodded. “What is your name, little one?”

“P-paela, Mistress.” she answered.

“Yes you are indeed lovely.” the giantess murmured. “Exactly as I prefer them.”

The giantess continued to lower the toy sized figure. Paela finally began to breath in relief at having survived her first encounter with the Mistress of Discipline, until she noticed the giantess’s left hand take a hold of her own skirts. Desmensi lifted her skirt high enough to expose the silken undergarments she wore beneath. Though on the outside she remained as languid as ever, on the inside her heart began to quicken in pace. Paela was beginning to experience the same sensation, though for drastically different reasons.

“NO!” she wailed, thrashing about. “NO MISTRESS PLEASE! NO!”

A soft, horribly deep moan escaped the Titan’s throat. “You shall not be harmed, little one. But please, continue to flail about as hard as you can.” she purred. “It excites me.”

Desmensi’s left hand snaked passed her skirts, and held open the pearly white garments for her new toy. Before Paela could react, the fingers that held her aloft suddenly released. She fell a good twenty feet, only to land comfortably on the soft fabric of Desmensi’s underwear. Before her loomed the monolithic vagina, freshly shaved and already showing signs of moisture. Paela cast one last, hopeless look upwards, and was met with the sinister grin of her Mistress, gazing hungrily back down at her.

“Please me, little one.” she whispered.

The tiny human was helpless to stop the two fingers of Desmensi’s right hand from pushing her up against the soft lips, and into them. From then on, all Paela could feel were tight, constricting walls, slick with fluids that forced her to slide deeper into the darkness. The last thing the men and women on the table heard were her screams of mercy, before they were muffled out. The Mistress of Discipline gave one last moan, followed by a sigh, before lowering her skirt and turning her attention back to the caged pets on the table.

“If the rest of you have no questions for me, then we shall begin.”

*************************************************************************************

Annallya trudged through the forest brush, mulling over the tempest of thoughts in her head. This was not at all easy, as she had not entirely shaken off the pain of waking up. This morning, upon opening her eyes, Annallya had found herself being assaulted by bright lights and crashing noises. All the while, her head felt as if two, needle-like blades were pressing themselves into both sides of her brain. Fortunately her mother had excused her from training that day, believing her to be ill, which meant that she had no need for an excuse to disappear for the day. The bad news was that Annallya was not so sure if she was not indeed sick. In fact she distinctly recalled throwing up the previous night, just before Gaelin had kissed her.

Now that had been unexpected.

Not just the kiss itself but how it had made her feel. Titans do not kiss in such a way. A kiss between Titans is a simple peck on the cheek as greeting to a close friend or family member. What Gaelin had done with her was unheard of, at least to Annallya. Not to mention that it had been Gaelin who had done it. Gaelin, her gruff, stone faced mentor had, in a very intimate moment between them, given her a kiss that had nearly lifted her from her feet. Though the two of them were close in age, closer in fact than her and Andrill, it had always seemed as if a great many years separated them. Gaelin always appeared so much wiser and more experienced than her. If the scars on his body were of any indication, he had seen true combat, where his life had been on the line. Whenever he had given her a lesson, he spoke as if were carrying the knowledge of centuries on his shoulders. In comparison, Annallya still had a great deal to learn before she would graduate and join the ranks of the Thylaran military, and had seen no real combat, outside of those bandits and the Catcher from last night.

In that moment, however, the barrier between the two of them had melted. They were no longer a mentor and student, they were not even a man and a Titan. They had simply been people. Two horribly lonely people who needed the company of the other more than anything else. It was unlike anything Annallya had experienced with a human. After her battle with the Catcher, however, that had changed. He had seen her at her full height, and become afraid of her. The more she thought about it, the less Annallya could blame him. From what Gaelin had told her, everyone in Sol har had experienced terror at the hands of Titans. From the way they had reacted to her the previous night, Annallya believed it. Gaelin was probably no exception, especially considering how a Titan had been trying to capture him mere moments before hand. How else was he supposed to feel when coming face to face with another one, one ever taller than the Titan that had tried to catch him? It all made so much sense to her.

But that moment when he backed away from her in fear, the look on his face. It burned in her memory. It had remained with her in her dreams that night. It was the first thing she pictured in her mind upon waking up. Annallya needed to speak with him. She needed to know how he really saw her. Finally approaching the hut, the Titan was momentarily surprised to find the yard empty. Every time Annallya had come to Gaelin’s hut, he had always been outside, going about some kind of task. Even when he was out hunting, there were always signs that he had earlier been busy with some kind of chore. Today, however, there was no a trace that he had left the house this morning, or was even there at all. Given the time of day, he should have been busy with at least a half a dozen tasks by now. Perhaps he had anticipated her arrival, and this was his way of preventing some kind of confrontation, hoping that she would leave instead. He should have known her better than that. Feeling her usual stubbornness begin to replace her earlier feelings of trepidation, Annallya marched up to his front door, and proceeded to beat it like a drum.

“Gaelin!” she called. “Gaelin, come out here! We must speak!”

No sound came from the hut for a few breathless moments.

“Gaelin!” she yelled again, banging on the door. “Gaelin come out! You must hear what I have to say!”

Again not a sound came from inside the hut. Annallya tried to open the door, but found it to be latched shut. Unless he had purposefully locked himself out before going hunting, then he must still be inside. The Titan beat on the door a few more times before taking a step back and crossing her arms.

“Gaelin, you know very well that I could lift the roof from your home without any effort. Please come outside so that we may speak in a more civilized manner.”

From behind Annallya came a soft rustling. She sighed while turning around. “It is about ti-”

Her sentence was cut off at the sight of a sandy haired assailant charging towards her, brandishing a metal poker. The figure was too close for her to face squarely and so, acting on pure instinct, Annallya lept to the side, and rolled away to gain some distance. Coming up smoothly to her feet, Annallya drew the knife at her belt, and turned to face her attacker. The boy who had rushed her stood in place, anxiously attempting to keep his feet still, while he hid behind the metal poker, all the while acting as if were a shield that was keeping her at bay. Now that Annallya had a moment to glance a look at the would-be assassin, she released a pent up breath of relief.

“Tayall.” she sighed while sheathing her knife. “I apologize, however you should not have frightened me in such a way. I could have hurt you.”

The young boy, not even thirteen winters of age, remained where he stood. He made no move to lower the metal poker, facing Annallya down as if she were a wolf. At once, she understood what was happening. Slowly and deliberately, Annallya raised her hands up to shoulder height, palms facing out.

“Tayall, I need you to listen to me right now.” she said.

But the boy only took a quick step forward, swinging the poker in a wide arc, before stepping back. “Leave!”

“Please Tayall, listen. I am not here to hurt anyone.”

This time the boy actually charged her, the poker drawn back overhead in preparation for a big strike. Annallya remained standing in place as the armed youth ran towards her. Just before he brought the poker down, Annallya stepped to the side and pushed his body past hers. Tayall found himself striking only air and, thrown off balance by his attack meeting no resistance, he stumbled forward a few steps before falling. The Titan winced.

“I am sorry for that,” she told him. “Please stop this, Tayall, I am not here to fight anyone.”

Stifling a groan of pain, the sandy haired youth jumped back to his feet in a rather ungraceful manner. Turning to face her again, he brought the poker up again to guard himself.

“Get out of here!” he screamed. “I won’t let you take him!”

Tayall ran at her again, drawing the poker back to his side. He slowed down a bit as he came within striking distance, and swung wide with all of his might. Annallya may not have the combat experience of a full soldier of Thylara, but she had had quite a bit of experience training to become one. Tayall, on the other hand, had likely never held a weapon before. She leaned her upper body back just enough that his attack missed her completely, stepping backwards as well. The boy followed up with more wild swings, each of which were fluidly dodged by the Titan.

“I won’t let you take another one away from me!” he screamed as he continued to attack. “You’ve already taken enough of us! We don’t want to lose anymore friends! Leave us alo-!”

Before Tayall could fully comprehend what was happening, he was hoisted into the air by his shirt, the scenery spinning in his vision. When his sight finally corrected itself, Tayall realized he was being held in the air by a now 20 ft tall Annallya. Without giving the boy a second to react, the Titan plucked the metal poker from his grasp, the iron bar appearing as little more than a metal twig in her fist. She dropped it to the ground and looked back up at the boy she held up with one arm.

“Now, if you wish for me to return you to the ground, then you must promise to listen to what I have to say.” she explained. “Understand?”

But the little human barely heard a word she had said, let alone was capable of answering her. Once he saw a Titan grow bigger than any man or woman was meant to be, all reason had left him. Everything that was not fear, in fact, had left him. All he could do at that moment was whimper in the face of his greatest nightmare.

“Please,” he whispered. “Please don’t take me away...”

Annallya tried her best to look as non threatening as possible. Not the easiest task when one is 20 ft tall and holding someone else in the air with one arm. “Tayall I have not come to take anyone anywhere.”

The boy sniffed as the tears continued to stream down his face. “You’re a Titan. You take people away, just like my brother. You took Andrill away from me . . . and I couldn’t stop it . . .”

“Andrill . . . ” she breathed. At once Annallya set Tayall down on the ground, shrinking back to her human height in the process. She knelt to one knee to be at a more even height with him, gently placing her hands on his shoulders for comfort. “Andrill is your brother?”

The boy wiped his face with his sleeve for a moment before speaking. “You . . . you knew him?” he asked with a sniff.

“I-” Annallya hesitated. “I know him. He is my friend, and he is still alive.”

At once Tayall’s head rocked back as if he had been struck in the face. The tears continued to flow, but the whimpering stopped at that moment. “H-he’s alive? Andrill’s alive!”

“Under Sun and Stars I swear your brother is alive,” she assured him warmly. “And . . . and he is coming home soon.”

Standing back up, Annallya marched over to the door of the hut and began banging on it again, this time as hard as she could. “Gaelin! Come out! I would speak with you NOW!”

She continued assaulting the door until the sound of a latch lifting could be heard from the other side. The door opened, revealing a disheveled looking Gaelin Val’ Saida. He was dressed in the same clothes he had worn the previous night, minus the coat, and the wrinkled state of them told how he had likely slept the night in them. His bloodshot eyes and tangled mess of hair told of how he had just woken up. However, it was the almost empty bottle in his hand that completed the story.

“What’re you doing here?” he gruffly asked.

Annallya paused for a second to take in his appearance. “We have much to speak about.”

“I’m still alive, thanks for checking up though. Come back after I feel like seeing people today.” He began to close the door.

The Titan immediately caught it, throwing her weight against it as well to fully stop it from closing on her. “You have lied to me.” she said through clenched teeth. She kept forgetting how strong humans were to her at this size. “You told me once before that it did not bother you that I was a Titan. That I was a good person.”

“Was that a lie?”

“Was it?” she insisted, giving one last shove against the door. Gaelin relented for a moment and allowed the door to be pushed open again.

“What do you want from me, woman?” he grunted.

The lanky Titan paused as she studied him further. “You appear as unhealthy as I felt this morning. But you did not have as much wine at the Inn as I had. You were in much better control over yourself that night.”

Gaelin grunted as he finished off the last of what was in the bottle he held. “I had some strong stuff tucked away for a rainy day here. Got the job done.”

Annallya glanced down at the bottle, her eyes widening. “Do you mean to tell me that every time I have seen you drinking from one of those bottles, that was what you were drinking?”

“No, not all the time.” he noted. “Sometimes it’s whiskey, other times it’s rum, or brandy. It depends on what I got lying around. But they all get the job done.”

“Gaelin,” she said slowly. “When I think back to what it was I had felt last night, and after only drinking a few glasses. And all of this time, you have been drinking entire bottles by yourself, and . . .”

“. . . You’re a drunk.” Tayall muttered.

Gaelin winced, causing Annallya to look back at the boy. “What is that?”

Tayall studied the ground intently, unable to bring himself to make eye contact with anyone. “My da told me that sometimes . . . sometimes people use drinking as a way to cope with their problems, or with pain. Eventually they become addicted to it, and they need to drink all the time . . .”

Rather than deny it, Gaelin only leaned heavily against the doorframe. “I told you once, I’m not the kind of man you should strive to be like. . .”

“A bottle is a home for no man,” she softly recited to Tayall.

The boy lifted his tear filled eyes to meet hers. “Andrill used to tell him that.”

“This is how you have been coping with my presence?” she asked, turning back to Gaelin. “I have brought so much pain on to you by being here, that you have been retreating to a bottle every day?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” he replied with a pained smile. “I’ve been drinking long before you came into the picture. Probably long before you ever picked up a sword.”

“Why?” she whispered. “What pains you so much, Gaelin, that you feel the need to drown yourself? That you can barely stand to look at me now?”

“What,” he repeated in a very worn, very tired voice. “Do you want from me?”

“I want you to explain yourself,” she affirmed. “And I wish to hear the truth. All of it.”

“The truth!” he shouted. “The truth is I never lied! Andrill was always a great pain in the ass! And now so are you! Story explained!”

With that, Gaelin slammed the door shut in her face, replacing the latch back on as well as two other locks. Annallya stood there in silence, shaking her head in frustration at his stubbornness. Releasing a pent up breath, she turned her head back towards Tayall.

“Step back.”

From the other side Gaelin sagged against the door in weariness. He had expected some kind of confrontation to come of this, but not this soon. He wasn’t ready to face her now, or to dredge up the past. Pushing himself up off of the door, he began to walk over to his cupboard in search of another bottle. It was no easy task, given how much he had drank last night before finally blacking out. It was a miracle he had managed to wake up this early at all. The room hadn’t stopped shaking in his eyes.

It took him a moment to realize that it wasn’t just his eyes that noticed the room shaking.

Beneath the soles of his boots Gaelin could feel distinct vibrations. Next came a great groaning sound from the ceiling above. He braced himself against the table as the entire roof of the hut was broken away from the rest of the structure. Thatched wood creaked and groaned in protest, as a gigantic hand lifted the roof as easily as one might lift the lid of a chest. What came next was a sight Gaelin had tried to avoid seeing in his dreams the previous night. Annallya, in all of her Titan power and might, gazed down at him from on high.

For Annallya this was a strange experience as well. In a house built entirely for his size, Gaelin appeared to her as a doll would, living in a very detailed dollhouse. Had she not been so emotionally conflicted at the moment, Annallya would have revelled in how adorable of a sight it was. Without ceremony, the Titan reached in with her other hand, being very careful not to damage anything else within the stone hut. Gaelin, to his credit, remained impressively calm as her immense fingers wrapped gently around his body, and hoisted him out of the house. Once he was cleared of the house, Annallya slowly set the roof back in place, and deposited him on the ground, next to Tayall, whose mouth was hanging open wide enough to catch birds.

Gaelin dropped ungracefully to the ground, somehow managing to stay on his feet despite the hangover, and glared up at her.

“I just rethatched the roof.” he growled.

That brought a smirk to the Titan’s face as she knelt in front of the two little humans, continuing to gaze down at them. “You may add it to my list of chores. I am sure that I shall get around to it eventually.”

“By flames you will.” he replied. “Alright, you’ve made your point. You want to talk, and you’re not taking no for an answer. Come down here and let’s get this over with.”

But the Titan only sat back on her heels and placed her hands on her hips. “Not until we understand each other. All three of us.”

The two of them stood in silence, waiting for her to continue. Annallya closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and looked back at them again.

“Titans are raised as little girls to believe that you humans are wild animals, living in the woods, hunting and killing each other savagely. I had grown up believing that all of you were tiny monsters.” she explained. “Everything I have ever done, all of the imprisonment I have tolerated, I did it because I had believed that it was right. That it was good. It was not until I had been given charge of taking care of Andrill that I was taught differently.”

“You, Gaelin, as well helped to show me that humans are no different than Titans, despite our differences in size. In fact,” she softly lamented. “I now thoroughly believe that you are superior to ourselves. . . Your compassion and empathy, surpass anything I have witnessed in Thylara. We strive to war with our neighbors, while your people are content to live peacefully with each other.”

She took another breath, and rearranged her thoughts. There was so much she wanted to say. “What I am trying to tell you both is that . . . I am a Titan. I understand Titans frighten you. They have taken away your loved ones, and have terrorized your village. They have hurt you deeply, in ways I may not fully understand. But I have only ever wanted to do good things for humans, and because of you all, I now know what good really is for you.”

Her hands, which rested on her lap, clenched into fists, as if to affirm her new beliefs. “I wish to help your people, and I shall, I promise. However, I need for you to accept the undeniable fact,and see me as I am. I am a Titan. I am what you have spent years hating, and being afraid of. I am Annallya Rhaolin, and I am a Titan.”

As gracefully as she could, Annallya placed her hand, palm up, in front of Gaelin. The man eyed it for a few breathless moments, before stepping fully onto the giantess’s palm. Very slowly, Annallya brought the little human up to her face.

“But I am also your friend, Gaelin Val’ Saida. Are . . . you mine as well?”

Gaelin shook his head with a sigh. “I’ve always dreamt of being held in the hand of a Titan. Honestly, I never imagined that walk away from the experience without being crushed or dropped.” He paused. “Though, considering it’s you who’s holding me, I suppose that’s even more likely to happen by accident alone.”

That brought a smile to the Titan’s face. Perhaps these little men did know something of humor. Gaelin smiled back up at her with another sigh.

“Flames burn me where I stand, but yes Annallya. I’m your friend. Heh.” he mused. “Friends with a Titan. Never thought I’d be saying that in my lifetime.”

“Oh Gaelin,” she breathed in relief. As gently as she could, Annallya pressed the tiny human to her chest, just above her heart, in a hug. “Thank you.”

She held him there for a few seconds, before depositing him back on the ground. That’s when she noticed Tayall looking sheepishly at her. When the Titan quirked an eyebrow, he cast his eyes down again and cleared his throat. “I’m uh . . . I’m sorry for getting you in trouble with everyone last night, Ms Annallya. I uh . . . Does that mean we can’t be friends too?”

In response to that Annallya scooped the boy up in her hands, and brought him up to her face as well. “Did you think that I had not noticed how hard you fought to protect Gaelin from the big, bad Titan? I would be honored to have such a hero as my friend.”

Rather than give him a hug, Annallya placed as gentle a kiss as she could manage on top of the boy’s head, before placing him down next to Gaelin. The swordsman chuckled quietly to himself for a second, noting how red Tayall’s entire face had turned.

“So is that all you had to talk to me about?” he asked.

“Well . . . no, not entirely. Though it was important.”

He nodded. “Well go on then.”

She nodded in return. “Do you remember that incredibly foolish task I had mentioned that I may be performing?”

“Don’t tell me, you decided to go through with whatever it is?” he asked.

Annallya grinned. “Not only am I going to go through with it, but you are going to help me.”

Gaelin took a minute to soak all of that in. “Come inside then, I’ll put the kettle on. Sounds like we’ve got a lot to talk about.”

Annallya nodded. Within a few seconds she was standing before the two of them at her human height. “Lovely. And if by some miracle we make it through this alive, we will have time to talk about the . . . other thing that happened last night.”

Gaelin quirked an eyebrow as he held the door open for her. “Other thing? What-” He paused when he saw her reddening cheeks. “. . . Oh.”