It waited in the darkness, continuing to examine the giant and the human from afar. The creature closed its eyes and listened to the silence. With its heightened senses, it could hear many things, but it wasn't enough to confirm that they were asleep. Concentrating harder, it used its abilities, its extra sense, to heighten the rest of its senses. It mind was more than just being intelligent, it could also many things with its mind, such as reaching out to other minds, like he was doing at that second.

        When its reach came upon their minds, it studied. It could feel the steadied heartbeats within the two beings and hear their deep steady breaths. In their minds, he could tell that dreams were forming and controlling their thoughts. They were asleep. It didn't dwell in those minds, because it didn't like to dwell in the minds of others. Besides, their minds were dreaming and such thoughts didn't make sense. Something that's awake who enters a dreaming mind could go mad from its illogicalness. It had been in their minds long enough to get what it wanted.  Now, it was time for the hard part.

        It closed its eyes once and sighed, trying to get a grip on itself. In all the years that giant came to find its cave, it had never once approached the giant, afraid that the giant would be like all the others giants it had heard tales and rumors of from the humans that used to camp in his cave before the giant made it his home. But now, it had a reason to approach the front of the cave. The giant had arrived with a human. Not once had the giant ever come home with a human, until now.

        The creature bent down till its hands were on the ground, keeping its upper body from plummeting to the ground. It bent its arms slightly lower though before its legs began to propel him forward. It approached slowly, but it always found it difficult to go slow. Sure it could go walk slow and it could be extremely silent, despite its size, but you try controlling all those legs and making them go as slow as possible. It was a lot to concentrate on.

        This creature that lived deep in the cave system was known as a chilotaur. Like many taurian creatures, a chilotaur was a creature that was half-human and half-animal in structure. This creature had the upper half of a human, but beginning where the human's hips should be, there was a long centipede body. It human body connected where the head of the centipede should have been. Its centipede body was black on the top, but on the bottom of the body and the many legs were a pale, yellowish brown. This chilotaur's human upper body was that of a male with pale white skin (it was more of a nocturnal creature) and scrawny looking body. Despite the puny looking physique, it had the strength of an insect, giving it more power than it looked like it had. Its hair was pitch black and it had tan antennas on its forehead. The chilotaur's eyes black, except for his red irises. This chilotaur wasn't a normal chilotaur, but a giant chilotaur. If it stretched its centipede body as vertically as it could, it would be about chest level to Tim. For now, it crawled as lower to the cave floor as it could, hoping it wouldn't wake the giant up.

        Cautiously, the chilotaur crept closer. It had to take a detour and go around the fire pit where there had been a flame which was now dead, but eventually the chilotaur was where it needed to be. With its insect body flat and its stomach against the rock floor, the chilotaur looked down at the human girl as she lied under the covers, clutching the top of the fur blanket rolled up in her fists. The human didn't look frightened; she didn't look like she was having dark and terrible dreams brought up by her worries from her conscious world. No, she looked like she was warm, comfortable, and at peace with her situation.

        The chilotaur glanced back at the giant who was sleeping close by to the chilotaur's left. The giant boy whose age was slightly older than the chilotaur's by a few years was still in deep slumber. The chilotaur didn't dare make a sound to emphasis its relief.

        It turned to face the human again. She appeared to be around the same age as the giant, making her older than the chilotaur. It was still amazed by the how small humans truly were. The human girl was surely a couple of years older, yet she could fit in its hand. Because of this drastic size difference between the two species, humans were fragile creatures in such hands, a reason why the chilotaur never tried to hold a human, let alone go near one. Up until this moment, the chilotaur had never been this close to a human, or any race of similar size. This time, it knew it had to break its own rule. It would have to take the human away from the giant,  in order to keep her safe.

        Glancing back at the giant, it saw he was still asleep. It still knew nothing of the giant. It did know if the giant was good or evil or the giant's views on smaller life forms. There's just not much one could learn from keeping a distance and watching someone who was alone all the time. Not many people talk about themselves when they were alone, all speech was internal and nearly all personality couldn't be determined unless a person was talking with another person. Even if the chilotaur had the ability to dive into other's minds, it still wasn't particularly strong in said ability, and the mind was a personal place. One of the only places where one could be themselves.

        Even if the chilotaur watched all the interactions it could with the giant and the human, it still couldn't be entirely sure about the giant's intentions. On the surface, the giant seemed to genuinely care about the human and actually treat her as an equal, but looks could be deceiving. The giant could have been playing an act to fool the human in believing she was safe with him, so she'd let her guard down. Then again, why would she need her guard down? She was around a giant, a giant that could do anything he wanted without any resistance. Unless, the giant was pretending to be nice so that when he did start showing a darker side, it would be shocking and more torturous. The chilotaur used to hear many stories of cruel giants and all of the inhuman things that did to smaller sentient beings, only because they were bigger and had the power to do so.

        "The giant might actually be truthful about his friendship with this human, but I can't take that risk. I don't know this giant that well, but I know she'll be absolutely safe with me," the chilotaur concluded.

        The creature looked back down at the human with both hands lowered, reaching for the human to pick her up carefully. There was only one problem, only one thing that stopped his hands! The human was awake!

        When Candice opened her eyes, not knowing why she decided to wake up in the middle of the night. Above her was darkness, but in that darkness, two giant eyes stared back down at her. These were not the eyes of her new giant friend. These eyes were black with crimson red irises. Candice froze like a deer looking straight into the headlights of an oncoming car. Those eyes were too terrifying for her to be able to let out a scream. It was just caged in her throat. Worse than those eyes, were the giant hands that were almost upon her. Candice began to hyperventilate.

        The hands quickly withdrew causing Candice to look back up at the creature's face. Examining the eyes, she could figure out the outline of the head. It was human, except for the eyes and two things poking from its forehead. As she continued to try and scream, she noticed that there was something odd about the giant looking down at her. Despite those red eyes, there was fear in them, as if pleading for her not to scream. What she could see from the face, the creature looked young, maybe no older than ten or eleven. However, the scream came out before the realization.

        Tim's arm shot up and wrapped around the creature's neck forcing both giants into the darkness. All Candice could do was sit there and stare into the darkness. Blurs of movement could just barely be seen and the sounds of the clash of the giants echoed through the enormous cave. The blows those giants must have been throwing had strength that Candice couldn't even imagine. Just one of those punches would probably break every bone in her body.

        The giant upper body of a boy tumbled into a spot of the cave where the moonlight lit up. The body looked like just another giant, but it was scrawnier than Tim and paler. His upper body was completely naked, like Tim's. He had shaggy black hair and two antennas poking out of his forehead. Seeing the giant for the first time in the light, her suspicions turned out to be correct. The creature was a boy close to ten years old.

        Candice saw a glint of metal in the moonlight and remembered Tim's dagger. "Tim, wait!"

        Tim stopped and turned to Candice with a completely confused expression. "Wasn't it attacking you?"

        "Look at him."

        Tim did as Candice said and saw the giant boy curled in on himself, arms protecting its head. "P-please don't hurt m-me," the creature pleaded while shifting away from Tim, revealing his centipede body in the moonlight.

        Candice shivered. She hated and feared bugs. This giant creature was part insect!

        Tim looked away from his human friend and back to the strange creature. The creature that was half-human and half-centipede scurried away from Tim, but closer to the entrance to the cave. It would have wanted to run back to its home deep in the cave system, but it would have to get past the giant with the knife. So, the creature huddled against the wall in full moonlight. Its human upper body had its back against the wall while the centipede body was wrapped around in a strange contorted way, showing off the centipede underbelly. The creature's human arm were raised and crossed, making a barrier for its face. The creature was sobbing. As it sobbed it seemed to be repeating words, but the only words Tim could interpret were "Don't hurt me".
        

        "It's a boy?" Tim realized. Tim shook his head, because that didn't mean anything. He had seen plenty of giant kids even younger than this creature enjoy torturing and even eating humans. Plus, this creature probably wasn't even in the same class of species. This made the creature more dangerous and unpredictable, especially since Tim had never heard of such a creature.
Still holding the knife, Tim threatened, "Stay right there."

        The creature only cringed in response.

        Tim backed away, still fixing his eyes upon the half-centipede creature. When he was kneeling beside Candice, he asked, "Are you alright?"
Candice didn't answer. She just stared at the insect body with an expression of both fear and disgust.

        "Candice, are you alright?" Tim asked a little louder.

        Candice looked away from the creature to see Tim kneeling beside her and looking down at her with concern. "What?"

        "Are you alright? Did that creature hurt you?"

        "No, I'm fine," Candice said with little sureness in her voice. She even looked down at herself to see if she was alright. When she tilted her head upward again, Tim was staring back at the creature to make sure it was staying put.

        "You screamed, what happened?"

        "I woke up to see it staring at me. Its hands were reaching for me."

        "It was probably wants to eat you."

        "But, when I woke up, it backed off."

        "What? That doesn't make sense. What does it want?"

        Candice turned her head in the direction of the creature, but instead of staring at the centipede, she focused her eyes on the human part of the creature. There, she saw a frightened boy, not a monster. "Maybe he didn't mean us harm. He's just a boy. Look how frightened he is."

        "We shouldn't trust it so easily. We don't even know what it is."

        "You haven't seen a creature like this?"

        "No."

        Candice sighed and whispered, "My brother would probably know what it is. He'd know if it was dangerous or not."

        "We need to figure out what it wants," Tim stated. "What do you want? Why are you here?" Tim directed his questions to the creature.

        "I didn't m-mean any harm," the creature replied between sobs.

        "Then what the hell were you doing to Candice? She said that you were reaching for her when she woke up."

        "I w-wasn't going t-to hurt the human."

        "Then what were you doing? Were you going to eat her?"

        "Eat a human? I would never. I would never do that." The creature shook its head while still protecting it with his arms.

       "Then what were you doing? Answer!"

        "I, I was making sure she was alright," the creature cried out.

        "What?" Tim replied in disbelief.

        Candice was just as baffled as Tim.

        The creature explained while under the barrier of his arms, "I heard about g-giants. They do t-terrible things to humans. I was w-worried you w-were one of those g-giants."

        There was a long moment of shock for both Tim and Candice. Could it be true? Was the creature only checking to see if Candice was alright? Candice examined the creature. Still continuing to fix her gaze on the human part of the creature rather than the centipede body, Candice was able to feel sorry for the giant child. He looked so frightened. "Tim, he's like you," Candice said.

        "Let's not completely trust it so easily. We don't know anything about this creature. It could be all an act," Tim whispered.

        "We should still at least give it a chance to win our trust."

        Tim sighed. There was still a chance the creature was telling the truth and if it was, it could become an ally. "I'm not one of those giants," Tim informed the creature. "I'm going to put the knife down, but if you try to attack us-"

        "I won't, I promise."

        "Then as long as you don't attack, neither will I."

        When Tim placed the knife down on the floor, the creature lowered its arms. The creature calmed down a little, tears stopped leaking from its eyes, but its cheeks were still wet, and it was still nervous.

        "What's your name?" Candice called out to the frightened child.

        "Kage," the creature answered, wiping his face. "My name is Kage."

        "What are you?" Tim asked.

        "Tim!" Candice snapped. She couldn't believe Tim asked that. Sure, she was curious of what kind of creature Kage was, but it was just the way Tim had said it and also it was the timing. It was as if Tim saw Kage as more of an animal than a person, or at least that's how it could have been interpreted. How could Tim be so rude? She stared up at Tim and saw how he focused on the giant boy. "He still sees the boy as a possible threat. He's acting this way, because he's protective of me. I can't blame him. I'm the first friend he's probably had in a long time. Of course he'd be cautious of me being around other giants, but he still has to see this giant is just a boy."

        "I just think we ought to know what he is," Tim replied. He bent down closer to Candice from his kneeling position and added in a whisper, "We need to know what it's capable of."

        "I'll say it again, Tim. He's a boy." Candice turned her attention to the giant cowering boy. Kage no longer covered his face, but he was still pressed against the cave wall with his centipede body still in a protective, contorted looking position. "How old are you—Kage? "

        "T-ten," Kage answered. Shyness, nervousness and fear were still evident in Kage's quiet voice.

        You see, Tim. He's only ten years old."

        "He's a giant though. I know toddlers from my own race do terrible things to humans. He may be ten, but his size makes him dangerous to you, Candice," Tim informed.

        Tim tore his eyes away from the possible threat to look down at Candice. He was still bent close in his kneeling position. He was sitting on one of his legs while the other up and pressed against his chest. His left arm was draped on his knee, while his right hand was a giant vertical pillar plastered on the cave floor to support his weight. The hand on the cave floor was very close to Candice's position, just in case. He stared directly down at his small human friend and she looked directly up as his face. By her stern expression with eyes filled with both pity and hope, Tim could see that Candice believed the strange creature called Kage was trustworthy, based solely on this first encounter and his youth. He knew she wanted this new giant to be like him. Or maybe she had just become so brave or used to Tim's size now and believed all giants were like him.

        Tim inwardly wished he could trust the cave dweller like Candice did, but he had different experiences with giants. Candice was lucky to come across Tim for her first encounter with a giant, which was probably causing her naïve trustworthiness to other giant. But Tim knew better. He had lived most of his years with his own kind and knew the terrible things they were capable of doing to humans. He wished most of his own kind could be more like him, but he had never encountered another giant with similar views on humans as his. This made it impossible to befriend his own kind. He just couldn't trust giants, not until they could prove themselves.

        He had a stronger reason now to distrust giants—Candice. Now, he had finally befriended a human, and not just that, but the human now lived with him! They were still in giant country which meant that everything was dangerous to the small human. As a friend, it was his duty to protect her from such dangers because she was helpless in this land of giants. It was Tim responsibility to make sure Candice wouldn't suffer the same fate of so many other humans trapped within the borders of the giant kingdom. If anything should happen to her. If she were to get hurt, eaten, or killed in one of the so many possible ways she could be killed by a giant, then it would be Tim's fault. It would be his fault, because it would mean that he failed to protect her, to keep her safe with him. Tim could not let that happen.

        "Candice, this creature may be younger than us, but it's still dangerous. It's still much bigger than you, giving it the power to do whatever it wants to do to you. Maybe kids are mostly good and kind in your world and it's the same in this world. But it's a different matter when giant kids don't see humans as a person and only see them as a plaything, a pet, or even a snack. I've seen terrible things happen to humans where I used to live. I've seen children younger than this creature commit some of those terrible acts. I've seen fates befall on humans that one wouldn't imagine occurs in Hell itself. Most giants aren't like me."

        Tim paused and Candice looked back at the giant boy. Could such a frightened child be the monster Tim claimed it could be? She found it hard to believe. Come to think of it, less than twenty-four hours ago, she didn't think she would ever trust Tim. Now, she felt he was a great friend she couldn't be without. In fact, he was the reason she was still alive.

        "How old are you, Candice?" Time asked.

        "Fourteen years old, why?"

        "This creature may only be ten years old, but that's not that much younger than you and I. Don't underestimate him. Besides, this is a taurian creature which makes it highly more dangerous than a normal giant, because it is half animal, and could give in to its animal instincts. This thing is half-insect, and from what I know of giant bugs, they are cold, heartless, cruel, simple-minded beasts. If this creature is anything like its insect half, it probably wouldn't think twice about eating anything smaller than it, despite sentience. After all, some bugs will eat their own mates!"

        "I know you're hesitant in trusting him, but we shouldn't assume such things. It wasn't long ago that I assumed you were a monster and that I feared you. I gave you a chance. We should give him a chance."

        Tim sighed.

        Suddenly, a voice interrupted the giant and human's conversation. "Chilotaur." It was the only word the creature said as it still huddled against the wall.

        "What?" Tim was the first to reply as he and Candice turned their attention back to the creature.

        "You, you asked what I was. I'm a chilotaur," Kage informed.

        "Is there another name your species goes by? I've never heard of such a name."

        "It is what humans call us. There is no other name."

        Tim looked back down at Candice. "Have you heard of such a creature?" he asked.

        "No, there isn't any such creature in my world. My brother's the mythical creature expert, not me."

        "You've never heard of my species?" Kage asked, directing his question to Tim.

        "Then after all these years, my fear is confirmed."

        "What are you talking about?"

        However, the chilotaur didn't answer Tim's question. Kage just stayed where he was, new tears forming in his eyes for a different reason other than fear of the giant.

        "You don't have to talk about it if it makes you upset," Candice called out, taking pity on the giant child.

        "Th-thank you," Kage said, wiping the moist bags of his eyes.

        "Could you come a little closer, Kage? I don't want to have to yell in order for you to hear me."

        "You don't have to yell, I'll be able to hear you."

        Testing it out, Candice spoke in a normal volume, "You can hear me from way over there?"

        "Yes, I can."  

        Candice realized that Kage had probably heard Tim and her conversation. She looked back up at Tim to glare at him. But he was still staring at Kage and not paying attention to her. Funny, never in a million years did Candice think she'd have the courage to glare sternly at a giant that was nearly two hundred feet tall, but she found herself getting used to the giant and even if he should ever become angry with her, she truly believed he still wouldn't bring harm to her.

        Candice focused back on Kage who was clearly upset by something. She could no longer just stand idly by while the giant boy cried. It was bad enough seeing a kid cry, but this was a giant creature. It just looked so pitiful when something that enormous was just that sad.

        She sighed. "I can't believe I'm doing this, but I can't just watch this anymore. I have to do something, even if it means approaching this giant creature." Candice shook her head in disbelief. Never in a million years would she have thought something like this would ever happen. Hell, who in their right mind walks up to a giant half-human half-centipede creature?

        Though still a little hesitant about approaching the chilotaur, she couldn't allow herself to do nothing at all. She stood up and started walking towards the giant creature. Just as her foot left the comfort of her fur bed and stepped onto the smooth, cold surface of the cave that was around the sleeping area, a familiar wall of flesh slammed down in front of her. The sudden movement startled her enough to nearly fall backwards onto her butt. In front of her was Tim's hand whose palm faced her as it was set vertically on the floor. She was close enough to the giant hand that it blocked her view of the giant chilotaur in the background. Candice followed the long arm with her eyes and eventually met the eyes of her enormous friend.

        "What are you doing!?" Tim asked with more concern in his expression than anger.

        "He's upset. I think it's best that I go over there and talk to him."

        "You do realize how dangerous that sounds, right?"

        "I need to try. I need to do this."

        "You're not going over there alone."

        "He's frightened of you, Tim. You going over there with me will more than likely make things worse."

        "I can't let you do this. It's not safe for you."

        "It's alright, Tim. I don't think Kage is going to hurt me."

        "But you don't know for sure."

        Candice reached up to the top of Tim's hand which towered close to another three feet above her head. With her hand placed on the side of Tim's hand, she stared up at the giant with pleading eyes. "Let me try talking to him, Tim, please. I can see good in him."

        "You've been wrong before. You thought I was a monster." Tim examined the creature closely—suspiciously.

        "I was scared of you because it was hard for me to look past your size. Once I got past that, I know there's no reason for me to fear you. I feel like he's like you, a good person."

        Tim kept silent and continued to stare at the chilotaur, his hand did not lift up from in front of Candice's path.

        With the hand that was still placed on top of the flesh wall, Candice began to pat and stroke the skin, in hopes of trying to assure Tim that this was the right thing to do and that it was something she needed to do. "Tim, please. Trust me. It will be alright."

        Tim looked back down at his human friend. He admired her courageous and kind heart. Here was a person smaller than his smallest finger, yet she wanted to approach another giant creature that she believed was good based solely on a feeling. Plus, she was convincing and comforting in her argument, but Tim still had troubles allowing her to go near the giant creature alone, without any way for her to protect herself. All his past encounters with his own giant kind was making it difficult for him to trust that Candice would be alright. But trust. If the friendship between him and Candice should continue, trust was needed. Candice had trust in him now. Now, he needed to show her he had faith in her.

        Tim sighed. "Candice, it's just that—I—If anything were to happen to you, if you were to get hurt, then—I just—I wouldn't be able to." The words were already there, ready for him to use, but no matter how many ways he tried to phrase them differently, he couldn't find the strength to say them. If Candice were to get hurt, if he failed to keep her safe, he just wouldn't be able to forgive himself. Also, now that he finally had a friend after those years of loneliness, how could he go back to those lonely days?

        "I understand what you're trying to say," Candice called up as she continued to stroke the giant hand. "You care about me and you just want to make sure I stay safe. I understand. But please, let me do this. Trust me; I know what I'm doing. I'll be safe."

        Tim couldn't believe what he was doing, but he found it harder and harder to say no to his new friend. Tim sighed again. Was he really going to let her approach the strange giant creature he had never heard of all by herself? Tim lifted his hand away and whispered a final warning, "Please, be careful."

        As soon as the enormous wall of flesh lifted away, Candice could see Kage again and she began her approach. She prayed that she was right about the giant child.