Rick jolted awake into a sitting position which shook the green armchair he was on violently. In turn, the chair tipped forward, threatening to crush him. Rick pushed back and the chair rocked back and with a soft thud hit the wall behind it. He sighed and leaned the chair back. He stayed still and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness
around him. Once they were adjusted enough, Rick looked around to find that he was in a very normal sized family room. He looked to his left and saw the couch with a normal sized Candice sleeping on it. He looked back up at the ceiling and sighed.

        It was all just a dream? I’m still home. That giant world, Aria, and then that crazy dream afterwards was all a dream.

        The fan whirled above him and his tired eyes stared at it with a hypnotized gaze. His eyelids became heavy and they started to close up.

        Wait, is the fan getting faster?

        It was a preposterous thought, but it did seem to be getting faster. He felt his hair moving from the breeze, but it wasn’t getting blown back. It was reaching out to the fan as if the fan was creating a sucking wind, not a blowing on. The fan blurred and became hazy as if it was phasing into something else. Suddenly, the fan was gone and in its place was what appeared to be a whirling cyclone that was getting stronger with each passing second. The blanket that was covering Rick whipped off him and shot up into the spiraling hole.

        Rick hopped off the reclined chair and hurried over to his sleeping sister. “Candice, wake up!” he ordered as he shook her shoulder. Normally, Candice was a very heavy sleeper, but this time she woke up.

        “Wh-what’s wrong?” Candice asked groggily.

        “We have to get out of here.”

        “Why?”

        Rick pointed to the portal.

        “What is-”

        The portal’s power became too strong and both Rick and Candice felt as though gravity failed them as they began to hover upwards. Rick grabbed the only thing he could: the handle of the sliding door, because there was nothing on the couch arm to hold.

        “RICK!”

        Rick snapped his head in the direction of the scream and discovered Candice flying
towards the portal. One of his hands let go of the handle and clutched one of Candice’s reaching hands tightly. She wrapped her other hand around his wrist. “Hold on, Candice!”

        “Don’t let me!” she cried out.

        “I won’t.” He just couldn’t let that happen.

        The pull of the portal grew stronger and it lifted other things off the ground. Rick’s grip on the handle was loosening. He groaned as his muscles strained.

        “Don’t you let me go,” she pleaded.

        “I won’t. I would never.”

        “You promise me?”

        “I promise. I prom-”

        The couch left the ground and hit Candice. The force that pushed her back propelled her out of his hand. She disappeared in the portal.

        “CANDICE!”

        Rick jolted awake and sat up on the bed that Aria had provided him. Breathing heavily with sweat drenching his face he frantically looked around the darkness that expanded to the far ends of the most massive room he had ever been in, making it impossible to see even the walls of the one-roomed cabin. Panic overwhelmed his brain and for a long time, he forgot where he was. After some time, he remembered Aria. He was still in the giant world with a gentle giantess, and the recent crazy occurrences were all a dream. He never left the world of the giants. He was still trapped there.

        Rick plopped back down on his pillow and placed his hand on his forehead, sighing in the process. Unless this is all just a dream too. He rubbed both of his hands through his hair. Shifting onto his side, he stared into the blackness as he waited for sleep to overtake him.

        After gazing long enough, Rick began to see the outline of a giant’s bed and the giantess in it. She too lay on her side facing him. The covers up to her shoulders formed her perfect body underneath and her hands were positioned beneath her pillow and head. He could hear her deep breathing and could just barely feel the strong gusts that weakened to a soft almost unnoticeable breeze when it finally reached him.

        She looks peaceful when she’s asleep. Rick closed his eyes. And beautiful too.

        He tried to sleep, but even with his eyes closed and his mind tired, there was something bugging him. A question nagged him, as he thought about the dreams he had, especially the one with the portal. I was brought to this world by a portal. It had to have sucked me up while I was sleeping last night in the family room, like it did in my dream. But, my sister was there. How was it that I was sucked up into a portal but not her? Unless-

        Rick opened his eyes and whispered, “What if Candice did get pulled up through the portal like me?" But, wouldn’t that mean she would have been with me when I woke up in the forest? Unless, she ended up somewhere else or maybe even another world. I don’t know the rules of these portals.

        Panic stuck him. Whether or not if his sister ended up in this world or another, she
was in danger. There was no telling what creatures and monsters lived in other worlds and Candice was as good as dead if she ended up in Felarya. Oh God, if Candice ended up in Felarya she wouldn’t stand a chance. Any of those monsters would have gobbled her up now. They had no logical moral code. They ate anything that was smaller than them period. There were far too few Felaryan creatures that thought differently and might have spared her. Please let her be safe.

        Rick wanted to wake Aria up. She didn’t seem to have an extensive knowledge of portals, but she knew far more information about them than he did. And if there was a chance that Candice fell into this giant world with him, he had to find her. He had to save her. Rick sat up and was about to get out of his bed and wake Aria up, but when opened his mouth to yell, he stopped himself. He watched Aria sleeping and couldn’t bring himself to wake her. She was gentle, kind, and would surely understand his fears, but waking up such a peaceful sleeping giantess and making her angry didn’t sound like the best option. Besides, it was dark out and who knows what kind of creatures lurking out there could harm even Aria, this was the giant half of the world after all. He didn’t want to admit it, but there was nothing he could do. It was all out of his hands.

        He lay back down and closed his eyes. It’s alright, there is no telling whether or not she’s here or another world. She could still be at home safe and sound with Mom. But he didn’t believe the lie he tried to tell himself and sleep was hard to obtain.