“Oh my God!” thought Aaron as he crawled out of the dirty hole. “This is…amazing! I’m certain I’ll find food and water here.” He brushed the thick cobwebs off him and looked around. What he saw was probably the biggest kitchen anyone has ever seen. Just looking up at the distant ceiling made him dizzy. It must have been three hundred feet above him. On one side the wall was taken up by a gigantic cupboard, and the smell of food came drifting out towards him.

The fact that he wasn’t afraid showed how desperate he was. For Aaron, like for many other orphaned kids after the war, life had been a constant struggle. Since an invading army had conquered his city, after destroying much of it, he’d been living on the streets. Stealing food, clothes and money was necessary to survive, and, for a while, he’d been content, if not exactly happy. Until the day he was caught and thrown into jail. The dungeons were located deep underground, where escape was impossible. Aaron spent many days and nights trying to get out of his cell, begging the guards to release him, anything to end his miserable state.

As the days passed he grew more and more despondent. By now he was nearly starved, and he felt that death was close. But then something happened. One night, the walls of his cell began to shake. The shaking grew more and more intense, and Aaron began to panic. Outside his cell door he could see the roof of the cave collapsing. The earthquake grew more intense and cracks began to form in the ground. He tried once more to escape, fearing for his life. But it was no use. In an instant the floor of the cell gave way, the walls collapsed inward, and Aaron found himself falling into an abyss.

What happened next he couldn’t remember. All he knew was that he woke up in a dark, damp place. Water dripped from the roof, but it didn’t taste good - in fact, it tasted like sewage water. There was only one source of light, a faint glimmer on the walls of the cavern. Making his way towards it, he saw that it came from a tunnel. He crawled into it, but soon regretted it. It was stuffed full of the thickest, densest cobwebs he’d ever seen. Once or twice he thought he felt giant hairy feet on his body, which scared him into crawling faster. At last he rounded a bend, drove himself through one final layer of spider webs, and burst out into the light. And this is where he found himself now.

Aaron had heard stories of giants before, but had never believed them. No-one did. Sure, people would sometimes wander into large caves and never come out again, but that didn’t mean…

“I guess I was wrong,” he thought. “I’m in a giant’s house, and if he sees me, he…he’ll eat me, or worse.” He should have turned back, but the thought of free food and water was too great to ignore. And besides, he was not at all inclined to crawl back into a tunnel filled with giant spiders again. So he plucked up his courage and made his way towards the gigantic cupboard. All the way he kept looking around him, but the room was deserted. Perhaps the giant wasn’t home right now, he hoped.

One of the cupboard doors was slightly ajar. Aaron tried to push it further open, but he was just two and a half inches tall in comparison, and he didn’t have the strength. In the space before him were several large sacks. He climbed the nearest one, looking for an opening. There was none, but he found he could reach the shelf above him. Struggling to gain a hold, he managed to haul himself up. And here he found what he was looking for. A chocolate cake the size of a house lay before him. Next to it stood a large bowl, and peeking inside, he saw it was filled with some kind of custard.

“Even better than I thought! I can eat as much as I want, and no-one will be able to tell I was here!” He dug his arms into the cake’s side and began stuffing bits of it into his mouth. It tasted wonderful. Within minutes he was no longer hungry. He should have left then, but he couldn’t resist tasting some of the custard. Stretching as far as he could, he dipped his hand into the yellow mass and began to lick it off. He was so engrossed in this that he didn’t hear the sound of footsteps outside. When he noticed that it was getting brighter in there it was already too late. He jumped down and ran towards the edge of the shelf, but stopped in his tracks. Ahead of him had appeared a pair of giant-sized, bright green eyes. And they were looking directly at him.

Lila knew that the cake wasn’t meant for her, but she decided to have some anyway. She hated that her parents would throw a big birthday party for her little brother when they never did anything like that for her. But he was a boy, and she was a girl, so naturally he got more attention.

“Someday, I’m getting out of this place,” she often thought. “Maybe I’ll go to the lands of the humans. At least they’d treat me with respect.”

She snuck into the kitchen, making sure no-one was around first. Her parents had taken her brother, Galen, out to the market, where he’d probably be able to buy as much toys as he wanted. They could be back at any moment, though. She opened the cupboard’s door and knelt down. What she saw next made her shriek in surprise. A tiny creature, no bigger than her thumb, scurried away from her. It hid behind the cake, and she reached in to catch it. A second later she drew out her hand and examined the little thing, screaming and struggling in her grasp. She laughed in astonishment.

“A human!” she said aloud. “Amazing! I didn’t know they were still coming here; they haven’t been seen here for months. And now I’ve got one!”

She quickly forgot all about the cake and ran back to her room. Once inside, she locked the door behind her. She didn’t want her parents, or anyone else, to know about her find. If they did, chances were that she’d never see her new pet again. He’d be tossed into a pot and cooked, or chopped up and served in a salad. Humans were seldom caught in the giant-lands these days, and were considered a rare delicacy. Lila had tried to eat one once, but the taste disgusted her. And then there was the fact that they looked just like the giants. She just couldn’t bear to see her little human ending up in someone’s stomach.

She sat down on her bed and put the little man down at her feet. He seemed to be paralysed with fear, or so she guessed. She’d tried keeping a human as a pet before, but her father had found out about it, and she was given a stern lecture about ‘how a giant should view a human’, which was as nothing more than a quick snack. This time she was determined to keep him a secret.

Aaron didn’t have time to think. He instinctively ran behind the oversized cake and looked for a place to hide. But in the darkness he tripped over something and fell on his face. Before he could get up he felt a powerful object grab him, and he was dragged out effortlessly. No matter how hard he struggled, he could not break free. He closed his eyes and began to scream. Then he heard a great voice from above, speaking the same language that he did. To his surprise, it sounded like a girl’s voice. His curiosity overcame his fear, and he opened his eyes.

He’d expected to see a hideous, repugnant monster; what he saw was a young girl, no older than himself. She stood at least 150 feet tall, but apart from that she was surprisingly human-looking. Clothed in a simple white dress, her brown hair neatly tied behind her head, she could have been any girl from a human city. But Aaron remained as scared as ever. She was still a giant, and if there was one thing he knew about giants, it’s that they eat people like him. He’d never heard of anyone escaping from a giant’s clutches before, but he had heard stories of people who’d seen their friends captured by giants and eaten on the spot. But that happened decades ago; there aren’t supposed to be any giants left.

As these thoughts ran through his mind, his captor carried him at a great speed through the house. A moment later she put him down on something soft; it was her bed. Just ahead of him she’d placed her enormous bare feet, each one easily capable of crushing him to death. Behind them, in the distance, her colossal body towered over him, greater in size than almost all human buildings. Her green eyes regarded him intensely. He looked around him in terror. On each side the bed’s surface stretched before him, before giving way to a drop of who knew how many feet. He was well and truly trapped. So this would be the way he died. Eaten by a titanic teenaged girl. He closed his eyes and waited for the end. She picked him up, but, instead of popping him in her mouth, she spoke to him.

“So, little human, it seems you belong to me now. I don’t know how you got here, into my home, but you’re not leaving. And stop trembling like that; if it had been anyone else who found you, you’d be dead by now. You’re lucky you were found by the only giant who thinks that eating humans is wrong. You’ll be my little slave, and if you don’t obey me at all times, I’ll hand you over to my brother, and he’ll finish you off. Is that understood?”

Aaron remained frozen in place. Lila repeated the question, a little louder this time, and he whimpered a word that sounded like ‘yes’. She picked him up and turned him around and around in her fingers, examining him closely. She didn’t know it, but her grip was actually quite painful to him. He was just too scared to make a sound.

“Well,” she said, putting him back down near her feet, “we’ve still got a few hours before Mom and Dad come back, so let’s get to know one another, shall we? I’m Lila, by the way, but since you’re just my slave, I think you should call me…hmm, how about ‘my lady’. Yes, I kind of like how that sounds. Don’t you agree?”

“Y-yes, my lady,” he replied in a shaky voice. For the moment it didn’t look like he’ll be eaten soon, so he thought it was best for him to play it safe, and plan an escape later. Maybe this girl-giant might even let him go once she lost interest in him.

“So tell me, human, what’s your name?”

“Aaron, my lady.”

“Aaron? That’s a funny name. I’ve never heard something like that before. Okay, Aaron, your first task as my slave is to give me a thorough foot massage. Beginning now.”

He remained standing where he was, and she grabbed him by the back of his shirt. He dangled from her fingers, sixty feet above the bed.

“You disobeyed my orders, Aaron! Didn’t I warn you what would happen if you did? However, since this was the first time, I’ll let you go this once. Next time however…”

“I’m sorry, my lady!” he cried in panic. “I won’t do it again, I promise! Please, put me down, I beg you!”

Lila looked at the pathetic little thing in her grasp, and wondered why she was being so mean to him. He had done nothing to her, and yet she was treating him like an animal.

“But he is an animal,” she thought to herself. “Sure, he may look like one of us, but he’s so puny. That tiny brain of his can’t possibly think like we do.”

She curled up her legs against her body and rested her chin on her knees. Then she put her prisoner on top of her right foot. He tried to stand up, but she wiggled her foot a little, and he fell down again.

“Now, let’s try again,” she said. “I want you to massage both my feet, and my toes. And,” she added, “if you do a good job I might even decide to reward you. Now get started!”

Aaron took a few deep breaths to calm himself. To say that he did not feel up to the task would be an understatement. Each of Lila’s feet measured over twenty feet long, and were over nine feet wide at their widest part. He lay down and began to rub her bare skin. After a few seconds she told him to work harder, so he did. He pressed his hands against her skin, feeling the powerful muscles beneath it. Once or twice she flexed her toes, throwing him off balance. He moved further forward, to the widest part of her foot. As he rubbed harder she began to encourage him.

“Oh, that feels good,” she sighed. “No wonder dad keeps ordering me to rub his feet for him. Harder, my little slave, harder!”

“I’m trying,” he muttered under his breath. Determined to get this over with, he grabbed her big toe with his arms. It was nearly as big as he was and definitely stronger. Placing a leg on either side, he half rubbed, half punched the sides of her toe. In response she wiggled it up and down, rocking him back and forth, until he could hold on no longer. He flew off and struck against the smooth skin of her leg. Then he slid down onto her foot.

Lila just laughed as he lay there. She pressed her finger on his back and began to rub him back and forth across her foot. Aaron felt himself sliding around, but didn’t try to escape. He was too weak and, for some reason, he rather enjoyed the experience. Unlike how she handled him earlier, this time she was much gentler. He spread his arms and legs and let himself get absorbed in the feeling. After a while she was done with him, and she placed him on her other foot.