Chapter Text
You thought it was the wind, when you heard it at first. Until the vast, incomprehensible swirling of air, shaking every leaf to shush against each other solidified into an unnatural pattern. You listen as you walk down a narrow sandy path in your vast woods. For short stretches of time you shut your eyes, so at peace are you with the sun laying a beam across your nose, soothed by the shushing leaves and the birds’ conversation. You listen to the pattern, growing stronger, so consistent and strange. What could it be, you wonder, pausing to gently shift a caterpillar off the pathway. A nearby land-shift? The distant dregs of a stranger’s drumbeat? A thunderhead booming in an even staccato? It sounds like none of and all of these things. You have walked these woods so many times. You know it well, and are unafraid of the staccato- whatever it may be.
You are unafraid, in your woods, walking down your path. Until the pattern is growing louder, or perhaps closer, when something in the back of your head kicks up, sending nauseous chills racing down your body. The sound separates from the din of the forest, louder now than the shushing and the birds. A distant drum, the din of a rockslide, horrible thunder all coalesce into a noise completely familiar, alien only in that it is amplified to a horrible degree.
Footsteps.
It is a ridiculous notion. Nothing could be that big. Least of all something with a human gait. One-two, repeat. It is not possible. It simply isn't, but it is getting closer all the same. Close enough now that you can hear, frozen where you stand, shrubs and trees creaking then snapping under an enormous weight, birds take off in shrieking flight, fleeing the trees from something you can't see.
You stare, wild-eyed in the direction of the impossible footsteps. With nothing but your thin set of clothes, you can't flee into the safer darkness of the woods, you'd be dead in a night if you lost the path. The only way to run is straight out in the open, lit up in dappled sun. Whatever is coming will see you.
By the time you are searching, frantic for a hiding spot, you can see the trees deeper in the woods shaking and bending like tall grasses to part for something- something that seems too large to be able to lift itself. That is all you see of the creature before you are diving into a thorny brush and curling into the smallest shape you can manage, wrapping your arms tight around yourself, and taking miniscule, even breaths, as though the colossal monster crashing through the woods would ever be able to detect your breathing. You don't manage to shut your eyes before they catch on the creature, what you can see of it from the brush.
Boots of creased leather, larger than some houses you’ve seen, pass into your view, crushing shrubbery identical to your hiding place. You hold very still, breathing forgotten. The giant- what else could this creature be?- doesn't pause its steady motions, the boot lifts, scuffs against an oak, and raises its shadow over you.
You bolt for the woods. You'd rather die of exposure tonight than be crushed beneath a giant’s boot now. What must be hundreds of feet above your head, a sound echoes like slow rolling thunder.
“Oh!”
You don't make it to the forest.
There is darkness, sudden and total, and you hit a hot, damp wall. When you reach out to touch it your fingers dip into whorls and ridges. Fingerprints. You lurch away and hit another wall, it is so dark, so warm and humid here. Sound is rolling over you like thunder pounding against your ears already ringing with blood.
You scream then, piercing and horrid, you scream for help, anyone, please anyone! And above you like a great ocean wave over a sharp stone:
“Shh!”
Your scream cuts off when the hands enclosing you open and reveal the dappled blue sky between the glimmering leaves. A face peeks into view, high, high overhead. A face identical to a human’s, other than the way it half-vanishes into the sky.
You feel quite faint all of a sudden. You open your mouth to scream again and instead fall onto your ass on the hard forest floor, faintly dizzy as you stare up at the creature that has its hands cupped around you like a child to a bug.
The face leans down, the creature crouching inelegantly over their hands to peer at you.
“Oh, fate.” They say, their thunder-loud voice making your hands shoot up to your ears. You see the face above you wince, so large and close that expressions are impossible to miss. “I'm so sorry, traveler. Did I hurt you?”
The shock of their words is enough to drop your hands into your lap. You can only stare blankly at their question. Unsatisfied with the lack of an answer, a massive finger splits from the hand, hovering over you as if to check you for injuries, and you flinch away, hitting another fleshy wall.
“No!” You shout fearfully, shoulders hiked up. “No! I'm not hurt! Please don't- please don't hurt me!”
The hands around you relax, giving you a little more space and fresh air.
“I won't. You're safe. We didn't know there was a settlement out here, or I would've kept away.”
You can only stare.
“What…?”
What settlement? Is he talking about that tiny trading post village? Or you?
“I just have a few survey questions, if you don't mind and then I'll be on my way.”
“What??”
The walls of ridged flesh twitch around you, blotting out the forest’s light; the giant’s massive, blinking face hangs over you like a nightmarish moon.
“An ecological survey, so something of this sort doesn't happen again.”
“What- you- what-?”
“I just have a few questions for you, it’ll be quick. Are you going to disappear into the woods if I take my hands away?”
“No. Wh- No! I won't run! Let me go!” It's a frantic empty lie, even to your own ears, all rational thoughts fizzling out under your panic. The giant mouth frowns down at you.
“I'll make this as quick as I can.” The giant says, their booming voice now slightly softer. Notably, they do not take their hands away. “Firstly, how far away is your settlement?”
You stare up at the giant in horror. They aren't going to let you go without you answering their questions. Even if you answer every one, all it would take for them to grant you a painful demise would be to crush their hands together. And a question like that?
If you tell them where that little village is- or any of the tiny groups you’ve seen out here over the years, they would all be as good as dead, entire families wiped out by unstoppable giants.
“There's- there's no settlement. Not- not near here. It's just me. I live alone. ”
“Okay. Thank you.” The giant mouth booms. “And where do you stay?”
If they know where you live there will be nowhere safe left to go. You curl into yourself, desperate to back away from the massive eyes peering down at you, but unwilling to move, too disturbed to risk touching the damp, heated walls around you.
“I’m… I- I-”
“I only ask so we know where not to tread.” The giant implores. It seems such an obvious lie that you're almost offended.
“Who- who is we?” You ask. Your voice does not come out nearly as strong as you'd like it to. The giant blinks down at you, surprised.
“Oh. Well, I work for HPARC. I'm a part of the team that does preservation in this area.” Preservation? Your mind's eye flashes visions of jam jars stuffed with alcohol and little once-living things. “Now, where do you stay?”
You duck your head in a wordless prayer for bravery. Your safety for the many, it must be a fair trade.
“I live in a cabin on top of a hill about a mile north. It's near a little creek with a willow tree.”
“Alright, thank you. Are your nutritional needs being met with your available resources?”
“Am I… eating? Sure, yeah.” You answer, still staring up at your captor like a caught rabbit. The giant mouth frowns with a hum that vibrates your teeth.
“...Forgive me for saying so, but you're thin for the season, and it will be cold soon. Is there insufficient game here? Or barren soil?”
You think of your pantry, not empty enough yet to fear but so close. The jars of fruit canned by a forgotten neighbor summers and summers ago will not be enough to survive the coming months, but that is a desirable fate compared to the terror of this moment.
“Well… it's hard. To get by alone.” You tell the creature. It is unwise to rely on your distant neighbors, every one just as hungry as you, and some far more opportunistic.
“Of course. Thirdly, do you have access to medical supplies?” Not unless you want to walk 5 miles to the trading post to get it.
“No.”
“Do you have access to transportation? Horses, carts, carriages, combustion engines?”
“No.”
“Do you-?” The giant face halts, blinking down at you. “Hmm… apologies. Many of these questions don't apply to solitary humans. You can't very well develop industrial innovations on your own...”
“Do you… do this often?” You ask before you can stop yourself. How many times must they have done this that they'd have it memorized? You would have noticed them reading off a giant piece of paper.
“Oh, well, no. I've never actually spoken to a human outside of a lab setting. This is new for me.”
You squint up at the giant’s looming face suspiciously. They seem willing to answer your questions. That may not bode well for your chances of survival, but curiosity draws out your words regardless.
“What’s a lab?”
“You- oh, well. A lab is… a place where you study scientific fields. Try to understand the world around you. The lab that I work in under HPARC studies humans- like you.”
In your mind, now bright and solidified, you see little dead eyes stuffed into jam-jars, staring back at you. You stay upright only by virtue of the fact that you are already sitting.
“I don't want to go there!” You cry inanely. All it will take to seal you in impenetrable darkness and steal you away is for them to close their hands, what good is your word? The hands surround you even closer and you feel your breath stutter like bile in your throat, your body is cold as death in the blood-warmed air.
“Please breathe, you're safe. I'm not taking you anywhere.” The giant tells you, voice even softer, still enough to shake the scattered acorns around your feet. “I am required to ask you these questions, to avoid any unintentional damage- like what I almost caused today, but this is- this is not-” the giant swallows, loud and close against your ears, echoing faintly in the woods, struck silent in awe of such a monumental predator. “I… don't wish to cause you any harm.”
The great walls of living flesh and bone enclosing you lift up with a soft creaking and shifting of skin, and you are drenched in daylight. The hands sweep up, slow and strong to the sky. Your hair catches in the displaced air, tugging up and up past the canopy. The giant lifts the hands as if they weigh nothing, reaches up to rub a face. The moving shapes before you, too large for you to comprehend as one being, take instead the form of mountains in motion, the shifting of canvas-thick fabric shushing against itself louder than the largest trees. The shambling pieces lean down, grow closer to you, and suddenly yes, this is a body. This is a person.
Then what are you?
“Breathe.”
The word rattles in your chest like a flock of startled birds, shaking loose a gasping breath that you didn't feel yourself holding. Why aren't you running? You haven't even stood up.
“You're free to go, traveler. I'm sorry our first meeting was so… unbalanced. Unfair. You startled me quite badly when you shot out of that bush, you know- not that I'm blaming you, mind you, just that I didn't think there were any humans for many miles. Some of the more tenured agents are just constantly looking at the ground, but I don't work with humans in-person enough to make it a habit…”
Man, this guy can talk.
You don't tell them to shut up, for obvious reasons, and focus instead of tuning out the thunderous stream of words to steady your breathing. Your mind starts to catch up with what the giant had said. Free to go? Why? Are they going to let you run just to grab you again? Your heart might not take it. Your terrified gaze darts up to the skyward face, tearful eyes locking with huge hazel ones, unnaturally bright. The giant has stopped talking, at some point. They quirk their enormous mouth into an awkward smile, their teeth are flat and white, like yours.
“My name is Caelum, by the way. I'm sorry we couldn't meet under better circumstances. I know that you likely can't say the same, but it was a pleasure meeting you. I'll head the way I came and let you get on with your day.” The giant rises from their crouch, like a mountain growing out of split earth. You can do nothing but stare, slack jawed, still sitting on the forest floor, as the giant- Caelum? Dips their head in a slow, massive motion, and looks down at you with an expression too far away to make out.
“When we see each other again, I hope it is under better circumstances. Goodbye for now, traveler.”
The giant turns, and with one last smile, they walk back the way they came. The forest seems to bend around their frame, as they carefully step around old growth trees and through the pines that part like young ferns.
You listen to their footsteps retreat, watching the way the light shifts its position where it lays over the leaf mulch. You listen as the footsteps once again resemble other things, drumbeats or motor engines, but you would never again not hear footsteps.
Hauling yourself to your feet with the branch of a nearby tree, you continue down the path, back towards your cabin, where you can stock up on enough supplies and weapons to quell the shaking in your hands. Then to the trading post, to warn them of what you saw. That they will be coming back.
Goodbye for now, traveler.