Chapter 1

Just like every morning for as long as she could remember, Audrey woke up with the sound of chirping birds in her ears. The 20 years old woman got lazily out of bed and looked at the world through her window. Trees in their first flowering of spring met her eyes and she saw the birds moving around each, trying to woo their partners probably. She smiled as she saw a few peoples walking in the street. Their town – their country wasn’t huge nor densely populated, but ever since she’d been a child, she had seen more and more peoples being born here, and it made her so happy.

“Audrey, you’ll be late for school!” yelled her dad from the kitchen down there.

“I’m coming dad!” she replied, rushing to get clothed and then went to eat.

She was met by her whole family down there. Both of her parents were in their late forty and it started to show. Her dad had graying hair and even her mother started to show signs of age; but they were still healthy and strong, of course. As for her siblings, the twins seemed relatively calm today. At fourteen each, the two girls had really started to try and become different, eating different stuff, doing opposite activities, etc.

Helena was a shut-in, eating very little and thus her body was lither and perhaps a tad smaller now. Sofia, to the contrary, was outgoing, sportive – perhaps even too much – and she loved to eat food which would settle on her curves. Aubrey was proud of her C-cup breasts but her little sister already boasted a D-cup and seemed very intent on going ever higher on the alphabetical order. She was eating enough for two this morning while her twin took in just enough to endure through the morning – but nobody said anything, it was perfectly normal here.

“Ready for today? They’ll be giving out the answers to your applications, right?”

“Yes” replied Audrey, feeling nervous suddenly. “Marie and Anna said they were ready to pack things up as soon as they’ll get the approval from the authorities.”

“They seem mighty sure they’ll get that” chuckled her father. “Maybe they’ll be disappointed and they’ll have to stay here.”

“I don’t know… usually, they grant those applications, right?”

“Yeah, but there is quotas. If too many of us leave this place…” said her mother, her voice trailing.

“Why would anyone want to leave?” asked the twins in unison, before looking at each other and giggling. “I mean… we’re safe here, great even!” continued Sofia.

“That’s true, but there is a whole world out there” said Audrey, almost longingly.

She hadn’t asked to leave this place; she hadn’t the courage, if she was being honest. To be thrown into a wide, unknown world of giants and all seemed just too much for her. She had always been terrified of those stories about those enormous peoples, the MAJORS. This place, one of the many reservations for minors made over the decades was her world and she felt safe here. Even if she wanted to look from the walls so to speak. That’s why she had applied for the border guard’s course at the university.

“And what a world!” huffed Helena, who looked up from her small bowl so everyone would see her scowl. “Horny giants all around, bashing each other and stuff. We’re better here!”

“You’re just jealous because they all have tits bigger than your head” laughed her twin.

“They have tits bigger than your torso, whaley” replied Helena, which turned Sofia an incredible shade of red as the two teenagers started to argue.

Audrey ate her pancake without a word. Her best friends wanted to go there, in that world of titans, but she herself had no interest in that. She wanted to meet one of those MAJORS, perhaps even those legendary CYCLOS or whatever they were called… but she didn’t want to leave the reservation proper. 90% of the minors who did never came back. Either it was because they had found a mate out there, they died or they got pregnant with a MAJORS and the policy was to preserve, as much as possible, their gene-pool from MAJOR’s influence.

Since the reservations had been set up, more than 150 years ago, at the dawn of the CYCLO age of the Matthewsons and the like, this policy had allowed minors to move away from extinction. They were far less numerous than MAJORS, of course, but at least they weren’t threatened by oblivion because a dude over two meters and a half tall wanted to have sex with three of their kind in the same night, or something like that. It was a good thing, Audrey knew this. And still, she felt somewhat stifled, as if she was in a pretty cage.

“You did apply for the border guard, right honey?” asked her mother as she gently dropped a glass of orange juice next to her older daughter.

“Yeah… And I think I managed to do good at the exams but…”

“You aced them kiddo” said her father, pointing at her with his spoon. “No false modesty here, the border guard would be dumb not to recognize that you’re the best of your year!”

Audrey fidgeted. She had never been at ease with compliment, even from her family. She knew her athletic build had allowed her to do good during the exams, and she new how to wield her hypodermic rifle and guns according to standards… but she couldn’t help but be worried. Shooting a dart at a picture of an angry MAJOR to make him fall asleep was one thing, doing so to a real one, in her mind, was something else altogether.

“Don’t worry sweetie. You’re young, even for a minor. You’ll have all the time in the world to decide what to do with your life if you aren’t selected to the border” said her mother gently as she kissed her forehead.

* * *

“Audrey Kerbrat!” called a voice and she jumped out of the chair she had been sitting and walked briskly toward the door.

It had been over an hour since she had come here, to the University. Almost all her friends had come and gone already. Marie and Anna had been elated, they’d both got to see the outside world – Anna was moving to Paris, barely four hundreds kilometers away the next week ; and two weeks later, Marie would go to Melbourne, at the other side of the world. Audrey had been super happy for them, but also a little sad – she hadn’t any other real friend here and she didn’t want to leave that little region in the center of France were local minors were sheltered…

“Thank you for being here Audrey” said one of her professor, a wry old man with a large smile and a larger mustache. “No need to be nervous I assure you.”

Professor Zitter always had the knack to calm down his students, and even today it worked. He looked at her with an amused glint in his eyes and it was enough for the young minor to feel her worries start to dissipate. On his left and right were two other peoples, whom she didn’t recognize. One seemed to wear an official pin, indicating his affiliation to the “government” of the enclave. The other was a black minor with curves which would have made Sofia sick with envy.

“Those are Martin Dubourg and Sephania Matthewson” explained her professor.

“Oh.”

She recognized the names, at the very least. Dubourg was the official liaison with the outside world, even if he rarely appeared in public inside the reservation proper. As for Sephania, her name and her proud bearing indicated that she was probably of the real deal Matthewson family. Audrey felt her nervousness return with a vengeance when she realized who would be delivering the verdict on her application. It was absolutely unheard off for such important peoples to be here!

“Don’t worry, all his fine” said the Matthewson gal, her voice powerful, confident but gentle. “In fact, it is your stellar results which have attracted my and Mr. Dubourg’s attention.”

“Indeed. You aced all your exams, physical and theoretical” said the forty something man with a slight smile. “Which has left with a conundrum we hope you’ll be able to solve.”

“Really? I, if I can be of help!” she replied too hastily, which made the three older minors smile.

“You see” started Pr. Zitter, “we have had a lot of applications for border guard this year. And in fact counting you, we are short one place and it’d break our heart to dash the hopes of one you young peoples who have succeeded.”

“Therefore, we have decided to offer you a unique opportunity. Would you agree to be applied to the Outer Border guards?”

Audrey blinked. The Outer Border was real? Everybody spoke of it in hushed tones, as if it was a conspiracy or something like that. Border guards patrolled the 10km deep area surrounding the habitations of the minors, but it was suspected that a further 20 km area existed. And it was said that minors weren’t the only ones patrolling in that area. Nobody was ever allowed to go wander there, of course, so there was no proof of it, but Audrey was now offered a opportunity to discover the truth of it!

“I’m in!” she blurted, before turning red with embarrassment.

“Wonderful. You’ll have to move in the Outer border area tomorrow then. We’ll explain the details to your family, but we’ll require of you to choose your partner for this mission. At first it’ll be a six months long tour, to see if you can adapt. Here are three profiles we have selected. They are young  - a tad older than you however - but highly capable and have been grilled to be sure they’d be able to work properly with a trainee like you” explained Dubourg as he produced three files for her to peruse.

“We need your answer in an hour” stated Sephania with an encouraging smile.

* * *

That hour was far too short for Audrey’s taste. She barely had the time to really get a glance at the three women she had been told to choose from. But she had made her choice. Their resume seemed great, the very little she had been given at least and they were beautiful. But the third one had had something which had caught her eyes. Perhaps it was her read hair, kept in a short, masculine way, perhaps it was her very muscular and yet perfectly feminine body… or a combination of all of that.

In any case, she was what she loved in women. She had never admitted it, but Audrey was attracted as much by boys than girl – perhaps even more girls than boys, if she was being honest with herself. She did her best to hide it, because there was a certain pressure for minors to give birth to new generations. And that Megan girl seemed just too beautiful for her to pass up the opportunity to work with for six months.

“An excellent choice – perhaps a bit bold, but we were the ones who put Megan in that trio” chuckled Matthewson, grinning at the other two. “She’ll be extremely happy to meet you tomorrow. I hope you’ll be ready, it’ll be a great change in your life, I’m sure you’ll love it however. Megan is one of our best elements.”

“Uh… why was it bold of me?” dared to ask Audrey as she exited, whispering it to her professor.

“Oh… If you haven’t noticed way, far from me to spoil your surprise tomorrow; all I can say is that Megan will surprise you” replied the old man. “Just, remember that if you ever feel insecure for whatever reason, you can call your parents or someone in there and we’ll act swiftly, okay?”

“Okay” she replied, a little cowed, but also elated – the next day would be memorable!