“What?!” Orlak yelled, after he’d recovered from his choking episode. “Did…did I hear right? Lorek, if this is…if this…”

He couldn’t even complete that sentence, but pushed back his chair and advanced towards the frightened Lorek, who was too scared to give his dad an answer. Orlak ignored Alban’s commands to sit down, and when he felt a hand on his shoulder tugging him back he broke free violently. He grabbed Lorek by the hair before the boy had a chance to escape, and threw him down to the floor.

“That’s enough!” Alban ordered. “Sit down, Orlak, and let’s discuss this rationally. Your son is not to blame for anything here, only you are. Step back and sit down, now!”

Once again his words were ignored. Orlak had by now pinned Lorek down against the table top and began striking him on the face and in the stomach. Lorek tried to fight back, but he was no match for his father’s superior strength. When he heard the boy cry out in pain, Alban decided to intervene. He was unarmed, and Orlak was a strongly-built man, but he couldn’t allow this despicable behaviour to continue. He stepped forward, but before he could do anything the enraged Orlak suddenly flew upwards into the air, shouting in terror.

It was Belena; she had grabbed the man by the back of this tunic and was holding him fifty feet above them. With her other hand she formed a protective dome across her petrified boyfriend. Then she turned her attention back to his father. She tossed him up and caught him in her open palm, then clenched her fingers around his vulnerable body, leaving only his head and neck protruding from her fist. Her anger plainly visible on her gigantic face, she began to squeeze the screaming, cursing Orlak.

“You miserable little worm!” she yelled at him. “You horrible, horrible man! How could you treat your own child like that? Don’t you have any sort of…of humanity in you? I’ll make you regret what you just did!”

“No, you won’t!” Valerie said loudly. “Let him go, Belena, right now!”

“Why…”

“Right now! I am not going to ask again!”

Belena knew better than to disobey her mother, especially when she sounded so utterly furious as she did now. She put the traumatized Orlak back down on the table, right next to a completely stunned King Alban, who had clearly not seen his daughter act so viciously ever before. Valerie stood up and laid her hand on Belena’s shoulder.

“I’d like you to leave us for a bit, dear,” she said, calmly but firmly. “Go upstairs and take Lorek with you. Your father and I will try and sort things out, and then I’m going to have a long talk with you.”

“But…”

“No, don’t argue. Just take Lorek and go. We’ll do the apologizing.”

“Well, I’m not going to apologize…”

“Now, Belena!”

She didn’t need to be told again. Lifting her left hand, she found Lorek curled up beneath it, still completely terrified. She gently picked him up and dropped him into her cupped hands, holding him as if she was afraid she might break him. Then she got up and left silently, but once she was upstairs and had reached the passage which led to her room, her anger burst forth again.

“What an awful, dreadful, vile excuse for a man! How could you even stand to live with him, Lorek? I know he’s your dad, but he’s still a monster! If he ever hurts you like that again, I’ll…I’ll hurt him far worse!”

“No, Belena, don’t…”

“I mean, what gives him the right? So he doesn’t like us giants – does that mean he wants everyone else to hate us as well? It just makes me want to step on him and crush him slowly, or swallow him alive…maybe then he’ll leave us alone, the foul little cockroach!”

“Belena, stop it! You’re scaring me!”

“Oh, am I? Am I really scaring you, Lorek?! You’re scared of me now, is that it?”

“Yes!” he screamed. “I don’t like it when you’re like this! It sounds like you want to…to kill me or something! Just…please…stop!”

Belena was completely taken aback. She had no idea how things had fallen apart so quickly, but she forced herself to accept one thing – that a great deal of it was her fault. She had been too…in love to handle the situation with more tact, and now the damage was done. Once again her parents had had to come to the rescue, and she hoped that they would be able to restore the peace. But even if Orlak accepted their relationship eventually, she still doubted that he would ever see her as a person, and not as a subhuman freak. But, most of all, she was concerned for Lorek. This whole thing must be a nightmare for him, and she wondered if even her love and devotion would be enough to comfort him.

She walked on past her room, and headed instead to a small turret with a winding staircase. At the top was a little room with a balcony which looked out over the city, hundreds and hundreds of feet below. Belena pulled a small couch out onto that balcony, which was bathed in the light of a bright moon. She lay down on it and drew her legs up to her chest. Holding Lorek, who was still upset beyond words, in her folded hands, she gazed down upon the wide lands she would one day rule. Lorek wriggled out between a gap in her intertwined fingers and dropped down onto her dress. She thought he wanted to look as well, so she put him on her shoulder.

“It’s…beautiful,” he whispered, and she thought it sounded like he was struggling not to cry. “It must be amazing to live here…for you, that is.”

“Only if you’ll live here with me,” she replied. “I can’t imagine being Queen someday, and not have someone I can share my life with. All of the empires and riches in the world would mean nothing to me then.”

She wanted to continue telling him how much he meant to her, but didn’t want to sound like she was laying it on too thick. Once again, the great princess was humbled by how little she knew about life and love.

“What happens when you become Queen?” Lorek asked, lying down on the soft fabric of her gown. “I mean, what’ll happen to me? Will I become, you know, a king?”

“Well, yes, if you want. You’re not descended of royalty, so you won’t become a king just like that, but, as Queen, I will have the power to make you one. We can rule together, you and I, and you won’t ever have to address me as ‘Your Majesty’.”

She laughed softly, and Lorek couldn’t help but smile. His feelings for her, damaged by what had happened earlier, grew stronger again, and he remembered again why he had fallen for her in the first place.

“I don’t really want to be King,” he said. “I have no idea how to…to rule, or how to make people listen to me and obey me, and I’m not any good in a battle, or at making laws, or looking like royalty…”

“You couldn’t look more royal to me, my love. I’ve met other ‘royals’ before, and, believe me, you are much more a gentleman than they are. As for being a great warrior…well, that doesn’t matter to me either. I won’t have you – or any human soldiers under my command, for that matter – going off to fight a war which I can win more easily by myself. I am a giantess, after all, and it’s going to take quite a big army to defeat someone as powerful as I am…or will be. You know, once I’ve learned to be a bit more…tough and ruthless, I suppose.”

“But that’s not really fair, is it? You don’t have to do everything! Your mother…I mean, Queen Valerie…she doesn’t go off to fight whenever a city gets attacked. That’s not a lady’s task…”

She turned her head to look at him. Stretched out on top of her shoulder, he looked so sweet and adorable that she easily forgave him for that ‘sexist’ comment. In truth, Belena was not at all looking forward to taking part in any battles or fighting off hordes of enemy soldiers. She was just too kind a soul for that, and she didn’t care if anyone thought she was weak because of it. But she was, at least in her enemies’ eyes, monstrously large, and if she could face an enemy army and scare them into submission just by acting like a tough, merciless warrior-queen, she would have no hesitation to do so. She might even send in her own army if all else failed. But the one thing she would never do was send Lorek off into battle as well. He belonged here with her, safely in her possession, and if others had a problem with that, she’ll tell them where they can go.

She tilted her head downwards so that her mouth came to a rest on his body. Using her lips, she picked him up and straightened her head. His entire body could be held lengthwise between her two moist lips, and she loved the touch of his minute arms and legs as they reached down into her mouth and prodded the tip of her tongue. To them, this was what kissing would be like; Lorek might still have the option of kissing a human girl open to him, but Belena would never know anything other than pressing her lips against his tiny body and smooching on him as if he were a sweet. After kissing him for a long while, she dropped him into her hand. He was all damp and smeared with lipstick, but it was worth it to experience her kiss.

“Please forgive me, baby,” she implored him. “I should never have just forced all of this on you. You should have told your dad about us when you were ready, instead of having him find out like this.”

“I suppose you’re right,” he replied. “You shouldn’t have done what you did – you should have been more considerate.”

Belena grew tense. It was not like Lorek to stand up for his own opinion so strongly. Was he that mad at her?

“If…if he doesn’t want me to keep on seeing you…”

“Then I won’t listen to him. Belena, I forgive you, and I love you. I’ll always love you…always. My father can’t make me stop loving you, not now or ever. I’ll try and win him over to our side, and I’ll keep on trying, but if I have to choose…Belena, I’d choose to be with you.”

The young princess could feel all her doubts evaporating as she listened to his words. What a wonderful man she had found, who would give up everything he had for her sake! Her heart began to beat vigorously.

“Could you hold me…next to your heart?” he asked, amazed at how confident he suddenly felt. He was, as if by magic, no longer even a tiny bit afraid of her, nor shy or insecure or uncertain about her feelings for him. He knew now that she wanted him, more than anything else.

Belena didn’t wait to be asked twice. Closing her fingers around him, she drew her arm up inside her gown’s long sleeve. When her hand was drawn up against her body, she opened it and pressed her beloved against the soft skin of her bosom. Lorek found himself held securely above her left breast, his legs and torso resting on its upper slope. It was dark in here, but also warm and snug, and the feeling of being held near such a private area of her body was stimulating, to say the least. But the best thing of all was that he could actually feel her heart beating, its mighty rhythm making his comparatively little body tremble ever so gently. He wanted to stay right where he was, and he never wanted to leave. Where only hours ago he had feared they would never be together again, he now knew that they would never be apart.

With looks of delight and relief on their faces, the King and Queen of Vandan looked on at their eldest child from the shadowy turret room. Belena was completely enraptured by the miniscule boy she was cuddling, and she had neither seen them nor heard them coming. They had managed to appease Orlak for now, but he had still left without approving his son’s relationship with their daughter. In fact, he had vowed that he wanted nothing more to do with the boy, and that he was moving back to his old home in a small town near Elgon. If Lorek wanted to return to him, he had said bitterly, he would have to come to his senses and leave Belena forever. Queen Valerie was very upset as she watched him leave in the coach, and she and Alban had gone to find the young lovers and bring them the bad news.

Seeing them so happy and content, however, Valerie suddenly had no desire to ruin what could be a perfect evening for them. She looked at her down at her little husband in her hands, and simply shook her head. Alban understood. He took one last look at his daughter and saw that she was no longer a child anymore, before letting his giantess wife slip him into her cleavage and take him with her to bed.

Much later that night, Belena headed downstairs to the dining room. While she wished she could have held Lorek like that for an eternity, she hadn’t had anything to eat since the previous morning, and she felt very hungry. Lorek was hungry as well, so she took him to get a bite to eat, with him lying happily on top of her head, her luxurious hair making for a very comfortable ride. Only one pair of candles were still burning, and next to the untouched food Belena found a note. It was from Valerie: it didn’t mention anything about Orlak, but said that it was necessary for Lorek to stay in the palace tonight.

“My dad must have gone home by himself,” Lorek said, after Belena had read him the note. “Maybe…maybe he doesn’t feel like talking to me right now.”

“If you’d rather go home to him, I can take you.”

“I…I don’t really want to…but where am I supposed to sleep tonight?”

Belena sat down and began helping herself to the food. Though it was unfortunately cold by now, the supper she and her mother had prepared was still delicious, and she let Lorek have as much as he wanted. While they were eating in silence, she had an idea.

“I’ve got an old dollhouse in my room, which I don’t use for anything anymore,” she told him. “Arily used to live there, but she’s moved out, so…if you’d like to sleep there…”

“You…you wouldn’t mind? What about your parents?”

“Oh, they don’t have to know about it! Mom said you had to stay here in any case! Besides, it’s not like we’re sleeping together or anything like that…”

A silence fell, and once more they were both thinking their own thoughts. Sleeping together wasn’t something either of them had given much thought to before, but, now that she had brought it up, Belena couldn’t stop thinking about it. She was especially worried about how safe such an activity would be to her tiny husband-to-be. Of course she knew that her mother and father slept together (she wasn’t that naïve), but she had yet to gather up the determination to ask her mother how she, being a giantess, was supposed to make love to a man small enough to get lost inside her while doing so.

In the end Lorek agreed to her proposition. His only alternative was to sleep in Valdan’s room, but he said he’d feel safer knowing that she was nearby. The mention of Valdan made Belena suddenly miss her miniature brother…and her troublemaking sister Sylvie as well. It felt like a lifetime since the two of them had left on their journey, and, with all that’s been happening since then, she’d almost forgotten about them. But she thought about them now, and longed for them to return home safely. Being in love for the first time was terrific, but Belena loved her siblings as well, and she hoped they were doing fine, wherever they were.

The dollhouse – more of a doll-mansion, actually – stood in the corner of her room. She took a candle and went over to it to remove the roof. Kneeling down beside it she put Lorek down in the best bedroom on the upper floor, the one Arily had stayed in ‘till not so long ago. Unfortunately for him, it was quite clearly supposed to be a girl’s bedroom, all pink and flowers and fluffy pillows. Belena chuckled at how uncomfortable her little boyfriend looked, while he looked up at her as if to say: “Really?”. Not only was it a girl’s room, but the scale was too large as well. The bed was sixteen feet long, eight wide and five high, and Lorek looked positively ridiculous as he clambered on top of it and climbed under the heavy blankets.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, baby!” Belena said, laughing merrily. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise! You can sleep in one of the other bedrooms if it bothers you, really.”

“No, it’s fine,” he said. “I don’t mind. Sleeping in a dollhouse is embarrassing enough, so this isn’t going to make it worse.”

“Awww, you look so cute in there! The future King of Vandan…what will your subjects say, if they ever found out! Sweet dreams, my little Lorek!”

“You too…my princess.”

She blew him a kiss before replacing the roof, leaving him in the dark. Before she went to bed, she dragged the doll-sized mansion over to her bedside, so that her little love could be closer to her during the night. Then she closed all the room’s curtains, slipped off her elegant dress (secretly hoping Lorek was peeking through his room’s window), blew out the candles and went to bed.