I opened my eyes in an unfamiliar bed. Immediately, I leapt up, glancing around in fear. The bed seemed to be on a ledge overlooking a massive, brightly lit room with smooth stone walls, which clearly extended far below this level and far above the ceiling over my head.

I leapt backwards in alarm as I noticed a massive metal hand resting nearby. But after a moment, I realized it was motionless—perhaps it was a glove that the giant sometimes wore.

Where was the giant, anyway? I cautiously walked up to the edge of the ledge and examined the immense room, which I found to be mostly empty. On one wall was an enormous door. Perhaps the giant wasn't home right now.

"You're awake!" an excited voice suddenly rang out.

Startled, I whirled around and stumbled backwards, stepping one foot over the edge. Attempting to regain my balance, I flailed my arms—no, wait, my arm. Just one. I realized immediately that I wasn't going to be able to steady myself this way.

And a black-haired woman who appeared about my age rushed forwards and grabbed my hand, pulling me to safety.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" the woman exclaimed. "You were unconscious for days. I helped as much as I could but I didn't know if it would be enough—but now you're up and I finally get to meet you!"

I blinked, trying to process everything.

"What's your name?" I eventually asked.

The woman bit her tongue for a moment as if she was thinking. "You can call me Chiara," she eventually replied. A pause. "And your name?"

"I'm Evanna," I responded. "So, um, where exactly am I?"

"You're under the mountain!" Chiara answered, as if this explained everything.

"But why am I here? And wait, why are you here?" This was clearly the giant's lair—I had no idea why Chiara would be so calm here.

"I brought you here!" Chiara explained. "I needed to get you away from the Godslayers, after all."

The Godslayers—was that the name of the people working for Akita?

Clearly sensing my confusion, Chiara sighed. "I guess you're a bit slow on the uptake." Without another word, she popped a berry into her mouth, started running, and did a backflip off of the ledge.

I yelped in alarm and ran to the edge. And I saw that as Chiara fell, spinning gracefully in the air, her body was rapidly expanding. There was a deafening crash as her feet landed on the floor far below, and when she fully stood up, her face was high above the ceiling.

"Perhaps you recognize me now?" Chiara inquired. Despite the fact that she was speaking at a near whisper, her voice echoed off the far walls of the room.

My instincts kicked in and I fled, bolting for a door I'd noticed behind me. But Chiara was far faster: her hand shot towards me faster than I could have ever hoped to run, and her fingers wrapped around me, pinning down my arm and my legs. As I struggled, she lifted me off the ground and high, high into the air, level with her face, an abyss between me and the floor below.

"Stop struggling!" Chiara's voice rang out as I kicked and squirmed. "If I drop you it'd be quite the fall."

My efforts were futile. I gave up, going limp in her hand. "What are you going to do to me?" I asked weakly, my voice sounding overwhelmingly small compared to hers.

Chiara laughed. "Oh, you don't need to be afraid of me, Evanna. I can't do anything to you that you couldn't do to me—we share the same power, after all! And all my life I'd thought I was the only one. That's why I'm so excited to meet you!"

On the covered bridge, I'd faced the giant when she had no idea I was there, and even then I'd barely escaped. Now, I had her full attention, which was far, far more terrifying.

"So, do you want to join me here?" Chiara asked.

"Join you?" I asked, trying and failing to suppress the fear in my voice.

"Of course!" Chiara laughed. "I want to see your true form. Could you grow for me?"

I didn't know how to respond. I'd thought that my growth on the train was controlled my emotions, but I was far from certain, and my emotions weren't exactly something I could control.

"I don't know how," I eventually mumbled.

Chiara reached her hand back down to the balcony and set me down. I could tell she was trying to be gentle, but I still lost my balance and fell to the floor as soon as she removed her hand.

"Go in there," she directed, pointing towards the door I'd been running towards a minute before. "Take a berry, come back out, eat it, and you'll be your true size again in no time."

And I did as I was told. The room behind the door was lined with bushes, on which grew unfamiliar dark red berries. At the other end of the room was another door—an open one, through which I could see that this structure extended far beyond what I'd initially realized.

This was my opportunity to flee. There was no way Chiara could fit in here without shrinking to human size, and I was almost certainly a faster runner than her.

But where would I go? I'd foolishly given Akita my name, so if I returned to my old life she'd easily track me down. And my face was almost certainly all over the news after the incident on the train, so people would undoubtedly recognize me basically anywhere. No, I'd never be able to go back to being a human.

So it seemed the only person who would accept me was Chiara. I could tell she'd been lonely for a long, long, time, as I would undoubtedly be if I ran away now.

I took a berry and I walked back into the room. "I don't think I want to try jumping the way you did," I said to Chiara. "Do you think you could lower me to the floor?"

Chiara extended an open hand, and I climbed on. She slowly crouched down, careful not to shake me, and set me down. As she stood up, I looked up at her, towering ten stories above me. With one step she could flatten me instantly, but she was choosing not to.

I popped the berry into my mouth, and I chewed, swallowed, and grew.

This time, I grew much faster—I felt my entire body stretching and expanding at once, and I saw the ground falling lower and lower below me, and soon I was staring eye to eye with Chiara—two skyscrapers with human names.

Chiara stepped forwards and wrapped her arms around me, closing her eyes and smiling. I happily returned the hug.

"I've been wanting to be able to do that for so long," Chiara said as she released me. She gently took my hand and smiled. "This is going to be fun."