I was a young girl when I first saw the giant. I’d of course been warned to stay away from the mountain where she supposedly kept her lair, but other than that, she was just a rumor, a legend, a monster that nearly everybody claimed to have seen once or twice during the night but who never actually seemed to be around. So it wasn’t until the day I saw her that I actually fully believed she was real.

I still don’t know what brought her into Lucerne. Even in the stories I’d heard, she usually stayed away from the city. But that one night, she was walking right down the river, ankle-deep in the water with her head high above the nearby buildings. And I was watching from a covered bridge directly in her path, too scared to even consider running away as her shadow enveloped me.

And a leg twice as thick as I was tall crashed through the bridge. Thankfully, her path narrowly missed me—but even then, I was flung backwards as the bridge tore in half. With my adrenaline finally kicking in, I grabbed onto a wooden beam as the bridge collapsed into the water, and when it was finally still, I was soaking wet, but alive, hanging just barely above the water level and watching as the giant walked onwards, fifty feet of jet-black hair cascading behind her in the wind, not even seeming to notice the bridge she had destroyed. I could still hear her footsteps as I rushed home, and once I was hunkered in my room, I listened as what sounded like fireworks echoed through the night.

I’d learn in school the next day that those were the sounds of an army that wasn’t strong enough to take her down. Everybody there of course had many questions—whether she wanted us dead, whether the army could keep her out of the city, exactly how big she actually was—but the only question on my mind was whether she had a name.

"Evanna, wake up."

Startled, I quickly glanced around. Clearly irritated, Étienne waved his hand in front of my face again. "We've got a train to catch, Evanna," he complained. "I can't have you zoning out or we'll both miss it."

Right. We were bringing the last of our things to Lausanne today. I hadn't wanted to move out of Lucerne, but he said that to choose to stay would be tantamount to abandoning him, and that would make me no better than his last ex. Since we'd started dating, I'd promised I'd be better than her, and I didn't want to go back on that promise.

And so, despite having felt uneasy all evening for no discernable reason, I picked up my pace as I pulled the last three bags across the bridge and into the station.

And soon, we were on our way. I watched out the window as the familiar mountains vanished into the distance as the train sped through the countryside. Seeing me gazing out the window, Étienne put a hand on my shoulder. "Trust me when I say this is better for you, Evanna," he declared.

Of course. He knew what was best for me. That's what he'd been insisting from the beginning, and the reason he gave for why I should say yes when he asked me to date him. I hadn't wanted to say yes, but if that was what was best for me then I couldn't exactly say no.

"Talk to me, Evanna," he instructed. "You've been quiet all evening. How are you feeling?"

The straw fell; the mask dropped.

"I don't like this!" I confessed. "I was happy in Lucerne. I was safe, I had family, and I didn't feel like anything was missing from my life. I don't want to live in Lausanne, Étienne!"

Étienne looked me dead in the eyes as he removed his hand from my shoulder. "See, this is why you need me, Evanna. You're too weak to decide these things for yourself. You don't have the strength to decide what kind of a life you want."

But I had decided.

I hadn't ever contradicted Étienne to his face before. I knew that he wouldn't like that and that it wouldn't make anything better. Besides, I was probably in the wrong. But this time, I felt in the right.

And as my mind settled with determination on this conclusion, the urge to speak my mind started to course through my body in a way it never had before. He told me to never admit to myself when I was scared or angry, but I was scared and I was angry, and after years of pressing them down, the feelings had become too large for me to contain.

"…Evanna, are you all right?" Étienne asked, returning his hand to my shoulder.

And the moment his fingers made contact with my skin, there was a bright flash of light. Étienne yelped and jerked his hand away.

"What was that?!" he exclaimed.

And as I suddenly snapped back into the moment, I saw flashes of glowing energy flickering all across my body. Étienne was clutching his hand as if he'd been burned.

Étienne drew back away from me, stepping into the aisle in between the rows of seats. "I don't know what this is, but you need to stop it," he commanded.

"How?!" I asked, trying and failing to keep my voice calm as I pinned myself backwards against the window. 

It was too much. The feelings were too big to contain. I felt them welling up inside me, trying to burst out.

And I grew with them.

It was hard for me to notice at first. My first clue was that the space seemed tighter—as if the seat in front of mine had slid back. But as my head bumped against the luggage rack overhead, my elbow jammed into the top of my seat, and Étienne stared up in horror, the truth was undeniable.

"Stop this!" Étienne yelled. "How are you doing this?!"

I didn't know. I focused all my effort on trying to calm myself, to force my mind into order. But as the seams of my jacket stretched and tore, it was clear that it wasn't enough.

And as I looked around the car, I saw the passengers fleeing in fear into the next car. My first instinct was to run too. But they were running from me. It was impossible for me to run away from this.

But it wasn't impossible for Étienne. As my shoulder broke through the luggage rack sending my three bags falling to the floor, Étienne fled without saying another word.

And so I was alone, in a metal box that was gradually tightening around me. The seats underneath me buckled and collapsed, and I even felt the floor starting to crack under my new weight. I was being forced into a horizontal position, with one arm pressed against each side of the train and a foot against the door that Étienne had just passed through. My hair ties had apparently burst, and my hair was spread across several seats and tangled around my bags.

The floor finally gave out. As I fell down to land on the tracks below, the train tore apart around me. Moments later, the next car crashed into my legs and went careening off the side of the track.

And I did the one thing Étienne had always told me to never do—I acted on instinct. Seeing the terrified faces in the falling windows, I reached out a hand and grabbed the side of the car, with my fingers crashing through a window to give me a firm grip. I heard the screams of terrified people inside, but I didn't know whether they were more scared of the fall or of me. But one of those I could remedy. Carefully, I placed the train car on the ground and pulled my hand away.

Even now, I was still growing. I began to wonder whether it would ever stop, or whether I would just keep expanding forever, becoming larger than the mountains, larger than the world, larger than the galaxy, with no say in whether or not my existence would tear apart the universe.

And once again, I snapped back into reality. I was surrounded by sounds—apparently, we were near a town, as the police had come out in full force, with numerous cars and several helicopters. Suddenly feeling sharp pains all over my body, I realized many of them had guns.

"Please stop," I implored. "I don't want to hurt anyone." My voice was suddenly thunderous, a far cry from the near-whisper I usually spoke in.

I'd never been scared of heights, but the upright position I was sitting in had my head several stories above the ground, with my hands and legs farther below than they could ever possibly be. Those massive objects I was looking down towards couldn't be part of me; it made no sense. And yet there was no reasonably-sized body below my eyes—only a colossal statue that seemed to move at my command.

"I'll take it from here," an unfamiliar voice rang out over the scene. It seemed to be coming from above me. I looked up, and I saw a zeppelin, at the front of which was standing a person with a megaphone. I had no idea who this was, but the police apparently did, as I felt the gunfire stop and the cars and helicopters immediately began to retreat.

The zeppelin lowered down until the person speaking was at the level of my face. I tentatively held up a hand toward it, only to suddenly find my wrist wrapped in an enormous metal shackle, connected by a chain to the underbelly of the zeppelin. Within moments, I felt a shackle close around my other wrist too, and my arms were pulled forward. Soon, ropes were wrapping all around my body, and the zeppelin began to lift me off of the ground.

"Now who might you be?" the person with the zeppelin mused.

"I'm Evanna Schwarzschild," I replied in the quietest voice I could manage, "and I promise I don't want to hurt anyone."

The person didn't respond. My face was pointed towards the ground, but I had a feeling she was still there.

"Who are you?" I asked tentatively. "And what organization are you working for?"

"I'm Akita Catanne," she replied, "and I work for humanity."

The door closed. The ground disappeared in the fog below me. I was alone.