I bit into the large juicy fruit I’d been offered by the little people. It tasted fantastically good, like nothing I’d ever tasted before, and I wasted no time in devouring the rest of it. Afterwards I gave a little burp and wiped off the juice running down the sides of my mouth, before remembering that the whole town had been watching me eating like a pig. I felt a little embarrassed and apologized for my bad manners.
“That nanwan fruit could have fed our entire community for a day,” their leader, Carn, said.
He was sitting on the peak of his hut’s thatched roof. I was reclining against a cliff face next to his hut, and he was still only as high up as my chest. Before me lay the whole village, a widespread collection of wooden huts and structures, with small and large farms intermixed between them. It looked very picturesque, especially with a large dividing river between the two halves of the village, and a row of forested cliffs along one side. I wouldn’t have minded living here, if only I were the right size.
“Gosh, I’m sorry,” I said, feeling bad. “I thought you were offering me the whole thing.”
“We were. I was merely remarking upon your prodigious appetite, O Great Katie.”
“Ugh, for the last time, it’s just ‘Katie’! Not ‘Great One’, or ‘Great Stranger’, or ‘My Lady’ or anything else of that kind. I’ve told you who I am, and where I came from, and how I got here. So you can at least pretend to believe me, even if you think I’m making it all up.”
Telling these people the story of my life hadn’t been easy, with the memories of what I’ve lost still so close to me, and, though they seemed immensely interested in it all, I wondered if much of it didn’t go right over their heads. They couldn’t quite grasp how I was able to survive for so long while frozen. I was told that the average lifespan of their people was only fifty years, and was stunned. No wonder Carn Cosell and his male friends were referred to as ‘elders’. They still looked young and vigorous, but they assured me that some of them had less than ten years left to live. Whatever the reason for this drastic change, I could only hope that it didn’t apply to me as well.
When I related how I went on a vacation with my family and my best friend Betty to a hotel on the Moon during sixth grade, there were gasps and cries of disbelief from my audience. While the ‘elders’ were arguing amongst each other over the truth of my tale, I wondered if that hotel in Tycho Crater was still there.
“Surely that god-awful gas didn’t spread all the way into space,” I thought. “I mean, that would be just…well, impossible, really. Maybe there are still normal people up there, who don’t want to return to Earth in case it’s not safe.”
With the little folk discussing and contemplating my story and paying no attention to me, I took another of the odd fruits some of the villagers had carried in from the forest, just for me. This one was apricot-sized and bright pink, and I ate it more slowly this time. Then I saw a small group of women advancing up the length of my outstretched legs. They were struggling with a wheeled cart, upon which rested a hollowed-out nutshell filled with water. It was the size of a coffee mug to me, but it must have been extremely heavy for them.
“Thank you,” I said, reaching out and taking it. “I was so thirsty. But you don’t have to put in so much effort just for my sake. I can easily fetch my own water; I mean, the river is right over there.”
“We were just fulfilling our duty to you, Katie,” one of the women said. Her name was Eleret; she was Carn’s wife, and had been charged by her husband with making sure that I didn’t lack anything I desired.
“Thanks, ladies, but I can look after myself. If there’s something I really do need your help with, I’ll let you know.”
I then looked over at the little house beside me. Carn and the other men had stopped talking amongst themselves, so they must have reached some agreement, but I could tell that not all of them were happy.
“So, guys, what’s the verdict?” I asked. I should probably have addressed them with more respect, but somehow I didn’t feel like it, what with me being so much more powerful than all of them combined. “Do you believe me or not? And would it be okay if I came to visit you now and then? You know, just to make friends, help out, that kind of stuff?”
“We do believe you, Katie,” the young leader said. “We are satisfied that you are not here to harm us. We also trust that you will not reveal the location of our community to Penton or any of the other city-states. We are fugitives, after all.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right. You didn’t want to live under that city’s evil rulers, right? Sorry, I kinda forgot most of the stuff you told me earlier – this is all too much for me to take in at once. But yeah, you can trust me. I won’t tell anyone where you live. In fact, I don’t think I’ll go anywhere near those cities – who knows what they’ll try and do to me if they see me?”
“Good. That’s what we wanted to hear. Now, about where you’ll be staying…”
“Already ahead of you, Carn! Ryu – that boy who first found me, that is – told me about this huge lake upstream. I think it’ll be perfect to put up my tent right next to it. Then I don’t have to worry about finding fresh water all the time, and I’ve got somewhere to wash myself and my clothes too.”
The elders began to whisper heatedly amongst themselves. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, and I wished they’d talk to me directly if they have a problem.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. “It’s not close to your village, so I won’t be bothering you at all. And I promise I won’t pollute your water supply or anything. I’ll scoop the water out of the lake before washing my clothes.”
As I waited for them to reply I reached out my hand for another fruit. I didn’t look at it before putting it against my mouth, assuming it would be just as delicious as the previous two had been. Instead, as I bit into it, I heard a piercing scream, and felt something large and alive squirming in the front of my mouth. I immediately spit out everything in my mouth into my hand, and was horrified by what I saw. Curled up in my hand, covered in saliva and bits of fruit, was a young girl. I recognized her as one of those who had brought me the water. She was about the same age as I was, and she looked so scared that my initial anger at her disappeared.
“Oh shit, I’m so sorry!” I cried out, looking for something to clean her off with. “I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t see you there…I am such a stupid, stupid idiot…”
Finding nothing, I resorted to rubbing her gently against the fabric of my top. Sure, it would get dirty, but I didn’t plan on wearing it much longer anyway. (Several of the elders had already complained about my attire, or lack of it – though I still thought they were being a bunch of prigs.) I’d managed to get most of the stuff off of the girl without hurting her, all the while apologizing, though I wondered what she’d been doing sitting on the fruit in the first place. When I was satisfied with how clean she was I put her down on the ground next to my leg. Immediately a pair of men stepped up and grabbed her roughly by the arms, and she screamed again.
“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked, not quite getting it.
One of the elders spoke up. His name was Fott Orisel, and it wasn’t difficult to see that he clearly hadn’t taken a liking to me. He’d been the first to complain about my outfit, and he’d also made a scene when Carn suggested that I should be served some of the fruit, which he said were not permitted to ‘people like me’. Of course I’d been friendly the whole time, but I guess some people will always have something against those who are different.
“That girl had forgotten her place,” the man said. “That food was meant for you, and she wasn’t supposed to touch it. For this disobedience she will be whipped.”
“What!? Are…are you serious? It was just an accident, that’s all! Is this how you usually deal with accidents here, Carn?”
“I…well, I suppose there’s no harm done. Would you like us to release her, Katie?”
“Duh! Of course!”
With my finger I pushed back each of the men who were holding the girl. They staggered back a few feet, completely overcome by my vastly superior strength. I then wrapped my fingers around the frightened girl and picked her up.
“Hey,” I said reassuringly. “Don’t be scared, okay? No-one’s gonna hurt you, I promise. What’s your name?”
“It’s…Katia,” she said, bravely looking me in the eye. I knew she’d still been afraid of me, but once she saw that I wanted to protect her she lost most of her fear.
“Katia? Why, it’s almost the same as my name! Nice to meet you, Katia.” She gave me a nervous smile and I smiled back. Then I looked at Fott and the other men on the roof.
“If any one of you try and hurt this girl, I’ll personally break every bone in those tiny, helpless bodies of yours. Are we clear?”
To illustrate my point I made a fist out of my hand and held it in threateningly in front of the group. Fott gave me an evil look, then he and his pals climbed down, out of my sight. Only Carn and one or two others remained. With my other hand I carefully put Katia down on the ground again. She mumbled a ‘thank you’ and waved, before dashing off into the village. I didn’t blame her; with things being as tense as they were, I didn’t want to hang around any longer either. Besides, the sun had almost set, and the last thing I wanted to do was scramble through the forest in the dark. I stood up and looked down at all the tiny people at my feet.
“Thank you again – for the food, and for, well, not trying to kill me the moment you saw me! I don’t know if we’ll all get along any time soon…but I would very much appreciate it if you would all treat me like a…like a human being, I guess.”
Many voices below me began to talk amongst themselves, but Carn silenced them from his rooftop perch. There was no sign of all the elders who had left – I figured they were really, really infuriated by my uppity behavior.
“We must admit,” he said, “you aren’t like anything we’ve ever encountered. This will be a challenging time for all of us, Katie, but, if you promise that you will abide by our rules and not try to hurt us or destroy what we have, then we will not be unwelcoming. Your giant size may even be of service to us, and we – or I, at least – am confident that you will soon feel more comfortable among our community and our people. Also, you have my word that the girl, Katia, will not be harmed – but do try and be more careful during your next visit.”
“Sure, I’ll try, I promise. First day is always the hardest, isn’t it? I’ll come by again tomorrow, and hopefully then I’ll get to know more of you, and learn a bit more about the world I’m going to live in. Anyway, thanks for everything! Goodbye now!”
It was almost dark and the stars were already out by the time I got back to hill where I’d awoken this morning. It already felt like a lifetime ago! I was overcome once more by the devastating emotion of the life I’d lost, and I tried not to cry as I ate some of the hibernation pod’s supplies for supper. Then there were all the frankly embarrassing moments during my visit to the little people which upset me. I hoped that I could get at least some of them to like me soon: I really didn’t want to be stuck here without any friends.
“At least I’ve got Ryu,” I thought to myself. “He seems to like me…a bit too much, if I’m honest. Oh god, I hope he doesn’t think I’m ‘interested’ in him or anything! How the hell am I even supposed to have a relationship with someone the size of my finger? Shit, why did all this have to happen to me? Why?”
I decided to go to sleep early, despite the fact that I’d just ‘slept’ for what must have been ages. While things could have been worse, I wasn’t happy with my ‘entrance’ into the lives of the tiny people. I guessed I’d already made a few enemies, judging by the way Fott had glared at me before storming off, and I wanted to ‘start over’, as it were. Also, I wanted to get up early tomorrow, so that I could carry my tent and all my clothes and supplies down to the lake, which I could see glimmering distantly in the moonlight from up here. It would take several trips, and use up a lot of time, but I didn’t want to sleep one more night in that abominable tomblike cocoon than I had to.
Still, that was the only place I could sleep that night that felt safe. I didn’t close the lid, despite the night being cold – I was really scared that the machine might somehow activate again, and send me another thousand years into the future. Instead, I searched around in the back for blanket, and found one I could throw over myself. Then I lay in my cramped cocoon and looked up at the stars, until I fell asleep.